Various Constructive Teamwork Building Activities
by Link and Luigi
Summary: Professor X, Mystique and Magneto have come up with an idea to build the teamwork skills of their assorted henchmen. Only problem is, they want them to be able to work with anyone, anywhere at anytime. **COMPLETED!! YAY!!**
1. The Race

You are so beautiful…to me

"So anyway, Charles," Mystique continued as she, Professor X and Magneto sat around a small table in a little café and sipped tea and ate scones.  "I don't know about your X-Men, but the Brotherhood certainly is incompetent and don't work well together."

"Well, the X-Men work well with each other, but not with anyone else." Professor X replied.

"My Acolytes just don't mesh at all." Magneto sighed.  "They just want to do their own thing all the time and never work together."

The three of them gave a heavy sigh and then took a sip of their tea.

"I need a way to teach them how to work together with anyone, anytime, anyplace." Professor X said.

"I hear you." Said Mystique.

"I've got an idea!" said Magneto suddenly, slamming his fist into his palm.

THE NEXT DAY!!!

The X-Men, The Brotherhood and the Acolytes were all in a big ominous field.  They didn't know why they had all been called there but they were certainly feeling uncomfortable with the presence of the assorted other groups.

"Are we supposed to fight them?" Scott whispered to Jean.

"Professor X didn't say anything about fighting." Jean whispered back.

"He didn't say anything about anything." Said Kurt since he has a tendency of just barging in on conversations.

At that moment, Professor X, Magneto and Mystique came over the hill with a giant bowl.  "I suppose you're all wondering why you're here." Said Professor X.

"YEAH!!!" they all yelled.

"Well, the three of us have decided to conduct a teamwork building activity that will be based on a race." Said Professor X.

"All right!" said Lance.  "We are so going to win, right Pietro?"

"We've practically won!" Pietro said.  "Just tell me where the finish line is and this is all over!"

"No!" said Mystique.  "TEAMWORK!!"

"You must reach every checkpoint with your ENTIRE team." Said Magneto.

"And no teleporting your team to the checkpoint." Said Professor X, looking at Kurt.

"Aww…" said Kurt sadly.

"When do we start?" asked Kitty.  "I'm ready to kick their butts!"

"Well…that's the catch." Said Professor X.  "You may have been thinking that the teams would be the X-Men versus the Brotherhood versus the Acolytes.  But we figured that you must be able to utilize any person or any power at any given time."

"So we're going to randomly pick the teams out of this bowl." Said Magneto, holding up the bowl since he was carrying it.

"No thank you." Said Remy.  "I'd rather not."

"There is no choice in the matter." Said Magneto.  "You either do it or you're off the Acolytes."

"Let's begin." Said Mystique.  "There will be three groups of four people and will be assigned a color in which they always must wear so you can tell the teams apart.  The Blue Team will be…"

Then Magneto pulled four pieces of paper out of the bowl and handed them to Mystique.

"Evan, Lance, Kitty and Kurt." Mystique read.

"All right, my X-Men, work together with Lance and accept him as part of the team." Said Professor X.

"That is so unfair!" whined Lance.  "I gotta be with all the X-Men?  Well…at least with you, Kitty."

"Lance, you like…totally…argh!  I can't like, even say anything!" Kitty ranted.

"Blue team?" Kurt said.  "Can't I be on the green team or some other team that isn't blue?"

"Do I have to do this?" Evan asked.  "Are you going to kick me out of the X-Men if I don't do this?"

"…Yes." Said Professor X.

"Oh." Said Evan.

"The Green Team will be…" Mystique started as Magneto held her four more pieces of paper.  "Jean, Pietro, Remy and Rogue."

"I'm with who?" Pietro said, dumbfounded.  "And who?  And who?"

"All right!" Jean cheered.  "This is going to be fun!  We'll learn to get along and work together!"

"You are WAY too enthusiastic about this." Said Rogue.

"Lighten up, chéri." Said Remy.  And Rogue became momentarily infatuated.

"And finally, the Red Team…" started Mystique.  "Consists of Scott, St. John, Todd and Wanda."

"Aw man!" whined St. John.  "Now they all know my name is St. John!"

"Looks like you and me are on a team!" said Todd, leaning up next to Wanda.

"Don't remind me." Said Wanda, walking away.  "It's bad enough have to do this in the first place."

"Professor!" said Scott.  "I'm a little uncomfortable with my team!  They are all extremely unstable and evil!"

"That's the focus of this race, Scott." Said Professor X.  "Teach them what you know!  Maybe you can help them.  This is all about learning about each other."

"Yeah but…look at my group…" Scott continued to whine.

"All right, we're done!" said Magneto.

"Wait!" said Fred.  "What about me and these other two guys here?"

"Yeah, what about us?" asked Victor.  "Roar."

"Are we being on a team?" questioned Piotr.

"Um…no." said Mystique.  "We need you to stay behind and protect us!"

"Protect you from who?" demanded Fred.  "You three are the only enemies to each other!"

"Don't question us!" said Mystique angrily.

"All right, teams." Said Professor X as he wheeled up to where the big mass of complaining people were.  He handed out envelopes to the teams.  "Here's the directions to the first check point." 

"But Professor!" Kitty yelled.  "This first check point is, like, in Spain!"

"Yes." Said Professor X.  "There are three parts of each challenge.  First is getting there.  Second is finding the checkpoint and third is the actual challenge that the person stationed at the checkpoint will give you.  If you need us, we'll be at that institute."

"This is such a good idea." Said Magneto as the three of them walked towards the institute.  Of course, Professor X WHEELED there.  And then Fred, Victor and Piotr followed them too.


	2. Onward to Spain!

"All right guys!!" cheered Jean.  "Let's go!  Hey!  I've got an idea!  How about we don't use our powers at all?!"

The Green team stared at Jean.  "What's the point of that?" Pietro asked.

"It'll be more fun that way!" said Jean.  "It would be more challenging!"

"This is a RACE." Said Pietro.  "We're trying to win.  Not have fun."

"Come on guys, I have a car!" said Scott to the Red Team.  "We can drive to the airport and go from there!"

"SHOTGUN!!" yelled St. John.  They all jumped into Scott's car that just so happened to be right there and drove off.

"Guys, they said no teleporting to the checkpoints but they never said anything about teleporting to an airport!" said Lance, looking at Kurt.

"Hey, you're right!" said Kurt.

"Like…you sure about this?" asked Kitty.

"Who cares?" said Evan.  "This whole thing is stupid anyway!"  Then they all grabbed onto Kurt and he teleported to an airport.

"I can't believe this!" gasped Pietro.  "Now I'm in last place!  You know, I have NEVER been in last place before in anything and now I am.  Come on, team!  We could at least take a step in the general direction of an airport!  Come on!  Come on!  Comeoncomeoncomeon!!"

"Jean, couldn't you just fly us all there?" Rogue asked.

"No powers!" Jean said, crossing her arms.

"Fine." Said Rogue, taking her glove off and touching Jean.  Then Jean turned into a negative and died.  But not really.  "I'll fly us there."

"Nice job." Said Remy.

"Anything else?" asked Rogue.

"…Chéri?" Remy suggested.

"Okay…" said Rogue.  "Pietro, you can run there yourself, right?  You could get us plane tickets…"

"I'm there!!" yelled Pietro dashing off in a cloud of smoke and flying paper.

Then they started a-flyin'!!

MEANWHILE!!!

"We are definitely going to win this!!" Scott said as he sped along the highway in the carpool lane.  St. John was shotgun, just like he wanted, and Todd and Wanda were sitting in the backseat.

"STOP!!!" yelled St. John all of a sudden as Scott swerved the car over to the side of the road and caused many accidents.

"What is it?!" Scott demanded.

"I left my lighter at home!" St. John yelled.  "We HAVE to turn around!"

"Can you just create your own fire?" Todd asked.  

"Yeah, do you really need a lighter?" Scott added.

"Yes, I really need a lighter!" St. John said, sounding offended.  "Do YOU really need those sunglasses?"

"Yes." Said Scott.

"We can get you a new one at the airport." Said Wanda.

"It's not the same!" whined St. John but then he pulled his lighter out of his pocket.  "Oh!  Never mind!  It was here the whole time."

Then they looked up to see Rogue, Remy and Jean's unconscious body flying overhead.

"Aw man, I thought we were in the lead!" complained Scott as he pulled back onto the highway and continued driving.

"Hurry!" said St. John.  "Blast them!  Make yourself useful!"

"I'm DRIVING!!" Scott pointed out.

"But there getting ahead of us!" Todd complained.  "Now we're in last."

"Last?" Scott asked.  "What do you mean?  We're in second now."

"Oh, the other team teleported there." Todd said.

"Curses!!" Scott said, punching the wheel in anger.  Then the airbag came bursting out and smothered Scott so he was unable to see where he was going, swerved off the highway and crashed into a tree.  And, just for fun, his sunglasses got flung off too and he blew away half the highway.  Yes…that is for fun.

Fortunately, no one died because people don't die in X-Men Evolution.  YAY!!

"NOW how are we going to get to airport?" Wanda said, getting out of the car.  Luckily they were all wearing their seatbelts so no one is mortally wounded.

"Help me find my sunglasses first!" Scott commanded.

"Oh…they're just a few steps to your right." Said Todd.

"Over here?" Scott said, walking right into a tree.  Then the rest of the team enjoyed a good chuckle at Scott's expense.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Finally!" said Kurt.  "After waiting in line for so long, we finally got our tickets!!"  Then he held up the tickets triumphantly but there was a gust of wind and they just disappeared from his hand.  "Huh?!  What happened to our tickets?"

"KURT!!" Kitty gasped.  "That's like totally uncool!"

"What'd you do with the tickets?!" Lance demanded.

"Nothing!" Kurt said, looking around.  "They're just gone!  I don't know where they went!"

"So we have to buy more tickets with this money that we got out of nowhere?!" Evan said in an exasperated tone.  "But more importantly, we have to wait in line and take the NEXT flight?!"

"The next flight?" asked Lance.

"Yeah." Said Evan.  "There's no way we'll be able to wait in line and get the tickets and be boarded in only a half an hour."

"Who says we gotta wait in line?!" Lance said.  "We paid for our tickets, didn't we?  Right, Kurt?"

"Uh…yeah." Said Kurt.

"Lance!" said Kitty.  "We can't like cheat anymore!!"

"We're not cheating!" Lance said.  "We paid for our tickets!"

"He's right!" said Evan.  "Come on, Kurt!"

"Well…all right!" said Kurt as they all grabbed onto him again and he transported them into the airplane.  So they all sat down in the rows of two and they weren't seated for more than five minutes before a stewardess approached them.

"Excuse me," said the stewardess.  "But you're in someone else's seats."

"These are definitely our seats!" said Lance.

"May I see you're tickets?" asked the stewardess.

"We uh…lost them?" suggested Kitty.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave the plane." Said the stewardess.

"You should know better, Daniels." Said Pietro's voice as Evan stood up.  "You can't get on a plane without a ticket."

"Pietro!" said Evan angrily as he spotted Pietro and the rest of the Green Team coming onto the plane.

"Now please move because my ticket says that you're in my seat!" said Pietro.

"YOUR ticket?!" Evan yelled.

"Yes, MY ticket." Said Pietro.  "I'm the one holding it."

"You stole our tickets, didn't you, Pietro?!" demanded Lance.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Said Pietro.  "I got these with my frequent flier miles, didn't I?"  He turned to the rest of his team who nodded with agreement.

"Well we're not moving from this plane!" Lance declared.

Moments, later, security was in and they escorted Evan, Lance, Kitty and Kurt off the plane.

"That was strange," said Rogue.  "What were they doing in our seats?"

"Beats me." Said Pietro as he sat down in a window seat.  At that moment, Jean woke up.

"Hey, how'd we get here?" she asked.

"We rode here on a bus while you were sleeping." Said Rogue.

"It's true." Said Remy.

"Don't you say anything more thoughtful?" Rogue asked.  "Can't you make declarative statements?"

"No, I just stand back and look cool." Said Remy, sitting down next to Pietro.

Then Jean and Rogue sat in front of the two males.

There was a pause.

"We've got a LONG flight." Said Rogue.

"Are we there yet?" asked Pietro.

"We haven't even taken off yet." Jean replied.

"Man, I could BE there by now!" Pietro whined.

"You could run across the ocean?" Jean said.

"I've never tried but I'm sure I could!" Pietro said as if he were offended.  "But frankly, I wouldn't want to sit there waiting for you slow-mos."

MEANWHILE!!!

"We're here!" said Scott, walking through the sliding doors of the airport.

"Good thing that taxi drove by." said Wanda.

"Well you almost got us kicked out of it!" Said St. John.

"I swear, TODD smells better than that taxi does." Wanda replied.

"Thanks shnookums." Said Todd.  "I love you too."

"I don't think so." Said Wanda, rolling her eyes.

"Now we have to wait in this line…" Scott said, looking at the atrociously long line that stood before them.  Then he spotted the Blue Team waiting towards the front of the line.  "Hey, look!"  He ran up to them.  "Hi guys!  Do you think we could get in line with you?"

"No way!" said Lance.  "Like we'd do that!"

"I've got an idea!" said Kitty.  "We'll give you our spot in line if you wait here while we go eat lunch!  You have to buy tickets for us too or it's no deal!"

"Well…" started Scott as he looked at the length of the line.  "All right, fine!  We'll do it!"  Then he called for his group and told them of the plan.  So his group got in line as the Blue Team ran off to get lunch.

"I can't believe Pietro stole our tickets!" said Lance angrily.

"Well, we just have to be more ruthless with our play then!" said Evan.  The two of them started plotting against Pietro together while rubbing their hands together diabolically.

Kurt and Kitty looked at each other and shrugged.

"Do you guys like really think that those guys are like totally going to buy us tickets?" asked Kitty as they all went up to McDonalds.  "What if they like cheat us out completely and get on the plane?"

"You're the one who made the offer, Kitty!" said Lance.  "So if that happens then we're blaming you!"

"I don't think Scott would let them do that though." Said Kurt.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Hey guys," said Scott as they got to the front of the line.  "If we just buy our tickets and not theirs then they'll be in last place and we'd only be in second!"

"Yeah but…" started Todd.  "They gave us their spot in line.  Otherwise, we'd be in last instead of just sharing last."

"We should say 'third' instead of 'last' to be more optimistic!" said St. John.

"Or maybe we could just say losers to be more pessimistic." Said Wanda.

Then Scott paid for the tickets.  "What are we supposed to do while we're waiting for them?"

"Well, according to this ticket, our plane takes off in fifteen minutes." Said Wanda, looking at the ticket.  "We could look around for about five minutes and then we have to board."

"They said they were getting lunch…so let's just go to the food area." Scott said.

MEANWHILE!!!

"I hope we're going to go a LITTLE faster than this!" Pietro said, pressing his face up against the window.

"We're only taxiing." Remy said.  "It'll go faster once we get in the air."

"Good." Said Pietro, leaning back.  After a short pause, he looked out the window again.  "Are we up in the air yet?  I don't feel myself going any faster!"

"I don't know, are we?" asked Remy.  "You're the one looking out the window."

"I just don't fly much." Said Pietro.

"I thought you had frequent flier miles." Remy said.

"What do you mean?!" demanded Pietro.  "Of course I do!"

"Are you scared?" Remy asked.

"ME?!" Pietro practically yelled.  "SCARED?  No, just very bored!"

"Hey you two, be quiet back there!" said Rogue.

"You want a coloring book, mon ami?" Remy asked, fishing through the pocket in the back of the seat in front of him.

"What did you just call me?" Pietro asked.

"My friend." Remy replied.

"Oh." Said Pietro.

"Do you want a coloring book?" Remy repeated, pulling a coloring book out of the pocket.

Pietro paused.  "…Yes."

MEANWHILE!!!

St. John and Wanda were sitting in one row and Scott and Todd were sitting in the row behind them.  "Oh man, your smell is overwhelming." Said Scott, moving over as much as he could.  "I wish these windows would open just a little."

"Well they don't." said Todd as he cleaned out his ear with his finger.

Just then, Kurt's group teleported in.

"Hey, what's the big idea, Summers?!" demanded Lance.  "You handed us our tickets but you never said the plane was taking off in ten minutes!"

"You shouldn't just teleport places." Said Scott.  "What if someone was looking?"  They glanced around but THANKFULLY, no one had been looking at that particular time.  Then the Blue Team took their seats, Evan and Kitty across from St. John and Wanda, and Kurt and Lance across from Scott and Todd.

"So anyway, the other team has a head start on us because they stole our tickets and took our place on the plane!" explained Kurt.

"Well you guys teleported here." Said Scott.  "And we took a taxi AND got in an accident but we ended up on the same flight as you guys."

"Wow, how did that work?" asked St. John.

"Cheaters never prosper!" said Scott with a wink that no one could see.

"Do you guys wanna like team up or something?" asked Kitty.  "We could beat out the other team together!"

"I don't know…are we allowed to do that?" questioned Todd.

"Who cares?" asked Lance.  "We have to get back at Pietro for stealing our tickets!"

"Well…that team didn't really do anything to us." Said Wanda.

"We gave you that spot in line!" Evan reminded them.

"We'll think about it." Said Scott.

"What's the fun of this if we're all just going to team up anyway?" asked St. John.  "It wouldn't be a race if it was the eight of us versus the four of them." Everyone looked at St. John with skeptical glares.  "I'm just saying this because I know that you Brotherhood members will go off one way and you X-Men will go off the other and I'll be stuck here alone!"

"Are you the only Acolyte in this race?" asked Evan.

"No, Remy's in it." Said St. John, crossing his arms.

"I don't see what Magneto's proving by only putting you two in the race." Said Kurt.

"I don't see what Magneto's proving by putting ANY of us in this race!" St. John declared.  "Why would we ever need to work with you guys if we're supposed to be trying to kill you?"

There was an awkward silence.

"I'm not going to start any sort of big fire to kill you all while I'm on the plane that you are!" St. John said as he started playing with his lighter at that very moment.  "Well…maybe just a little one…but not to kill you all, just so I can watch it burn."

"Um…how about I hold onto that for you until we need it?" Scott said, holding out his hand.

"I'm perfectly capable of holding onto it by myself!" St. John said defensively.

"Yes, I know you're capable of it, that's why I want to take it from you." Scott explained truthfully.

MEANWHILE!!!

"All right, I've colored every single picture in all these coloring books that I could find and I did as much of these crosswords that I could do!" Pietro reported.  "I wasn't paying attention, how much time did that take up?  I bet we're going to land soon."

"Hardly." Said Remy.

"What do you mean, 'hardly'?!" demanded Pietro.

"I mean guère." Remy answered.

"And what do you mean by 'guère'?" Pietro said, sounding more annoyed than he should have been.

"I mean, you're going to have to learn to be a little more patient." Remy answered.  "Try going to sleep.  Try watching the movie."

"So how much time is left?!" Pietro demanded.

"A good few hours." Remy replied.  "There are two movies scheduled for this flight and the first one has hardly begun."

"Fine, I'll watch it!" Pietro said, looking at the screen.  "There's no sound!"

"You need headphones." Said Remy, handing his own headphones to Pietro.  "Take mine."

Rogue and Jean, meanwhile, weren't proving to be very interesting.  They were just watching the movie.  They weren't talking or conversing or anything.


	3. The First Checkpoint!

LATER!!!

"Gimme my lighter!!!" St. John whined like a little baby as he chased after Scott.  The two teams were getting off the plane after landing in Spain.

"Bienvinedos a España!" said some crazy Spanish people.

"Don't worry guys, I am fluent in many languages!" said Kurt.

"Spanish being one of them?" asked Scott.

"No!" Kurt said.

"I take Spanish in school!" said Evan.  "HO-la!  Mi llamo es Juan!  Y tu?"

"Oh!" said the Spanish men.  "Hola Juan!  (insert long paragraph composed entirely in Spanish)"

"Um…" said Evan slowly.

"What did he say?" asked Lance.

"Uh…Bueno!" said Evan, giving the Spanish people the thumbs up.  "Donde esta Maria?"

"Maria esta en la biblioteca!" the Spanish people answered at the exact same time.

"Come on…" said Evan.

"What?" asked everyone else.

"Evan, you should ask them where the checkpoint is." Said Todd.

"Oh…of course…" said Evan.  "Um…donde esta el…checkpointo?"

"No way!" said St. John.  "Checkpoint is 'checkpointo' in Spanish?!  That's nuts!  I can't believe that?"

"Que es el checkpointo?" asked the Spanish men.

"He said to ask someone who speaks English." Said Evan.

"OKAY!!" said all the people who weren't Spanish.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Sí, sí, gracias muchachos." Said Pietro as he turned away from a group of old Spanish people.

"Wow, Pietro, I thought it was only your name that was Spanish!" said Jean.

"Thanks but it's Italian." Said Pietro.  "But I've been taking Spanish since the fourth grade and Evan's only been taking it since last year." Pietro sighed pompously.  "It just goes to show that anything he can do, I can do better."

"So, did they say where the checkpoint is?" asked Rogue.

"No." said Pietro.  "They had no idea what I was talking about.  And I doubt anyone will."

"Are we just supposed to wander aimlessly all around Spain until we find this checkpoint?" Rogue said in an annoyed tone.

"We could look at this map." Said Remy, pulling out the map that Professor X had given all of them.  "It has a big X where the checkpoint should be and there's even directions on how to get there."

"Fine, I'll go there now!" said Pietro.

"No, we all have to go together!!" said Jean.

"I'll go and wait for you there!" Pietro said in a whiney voice.

"No you won't!" said Jean.  "We're a team!  We're the Green Team!  Besides we're winning!"

All of a sudden, Kurt came out of nowhere and looked around.

"This isn't the checkpoint!" he said with an exasperated sigh as he pulled out his map.

"See?" Pietro said.  "THEY'RE cheating!"

"What?" Kurt said nervously.  "This isn't the bathroom?"  Then he teleported away.

"Besides, me running to the checkpoint isn't cheating!" Pietro continued.  "We're ALLOWED to use our powers!"

"Not on this team!" Jean declared.

"Hey, muchachos," came a voice from the shadows.  They turned around to see a scary shadowy man in the corner.  "You say you looking for a checkpoint?"

"How did you know?" asked Rogue.

"You were practically screaming it." The creepy man answered.  "Not to mention the fact that I'm a clue on how to get there.  If you can answer my riddle then I will give you a hint."

"All right." Said the green team.

"Here's your riddle," said the creepy man.  "HOW do you make a boogie dance?!" he said dramatically.  Then he paused.  "I mean!  How do you make a tissue dance?!  Oh man, I messed that up completely." Then the creepy man took off his trench coat to reveal that he was actually Bobby AKA Iceman!!  ARGH!!!

"What are you doing here?!" asked Jean.

"I'm the clue!" Bobby answered.  At that exact moment, both the Blue Team and the Red Team were walking by and they heard that and ran over as well.  "Okay, the first checkpoint is over there on that mountain!!" said Bobby, dramatically pointing at a mountain that was off in the distance of the little town.

"All right, all alliances are diminished!" said Scott.

"What?!" said Kitty angrily.  "We swore on it!"

"Here," said Scott, tossing the lighter to St. John.  "I think it's about our turn to cheat."

"YEAH!" said St. John excitedly.  "HA HA!!"  Then lit it and formed a wall of fire around the other teams.

"We better go before Kurt remembers that he can teleport!" said Todd as he started foolishly jumping away at super slow speed.  The other three shrugged and joined him and they all sprinted as fast as they could towards the mountain until they realized that it was way too far away to just run too, especially at the pace they were currently going at, so they stopped a taxi.

"Adónde ustedes van?" asked the taxi man.

"What?" asked the incompetent Red Team.

"Adónde ustedes van?" repeated the crazy Spanish taxi driver.

"Um…can you take us to that mountain?" asked Scott, getting in.

"A la montaña?" asked the taxi driver.

"Uh…Sí!!" said Scott as he gestured for everyone else to get in.  They all squeezed in the back and the taxi driver man started driving a la montaña.  After about fifteen minutes of driving, they arrived at the foot of the mountain since the driver was a really fast driver.

"Ése será cincuenta dólares americanos." Said the taxi driving man.

"Um…" said the Red Team.  Then Wanda decided that she was fed up with his inability to speak English so she used one of her magical projectile powers and shot him into orbit.

"That works too." Said St. John.

They all turned around to see that both the Green Team AND The Blue Team were already there looking as though they had been there for a long time.

"How did you get here so fast?!" demanded Todd.

"We decided that your cheating was dirty so we all teleported here." Said no one in particular.

"Except for Jean." Said Rogue.  "She insisted on not using any powers."

"And me." Said Pietro.  "I ran.  But only because it's fun."

Then they all turned around to see someone standing there with a cloak on.

"Welcome to the First Checkpoint," said the cloaked man.  Then he flung the cloak off to reveal that he was…FORGE!!!  He was Hip Forge, meaning that he was the cool one in the future and not that crazy seventies Forge when you first meet him.  He was that one in the dance episode.

"Are you the person at the checkpoint that the professor told us about?" asked Kitty.

"Why else would I be in Spain?" asked Forge.  "All right, this is the challenge.  All teams must take different paths up the mountain.  Each path has been personalized for each team.  When you come to each challenge on the mountain, there will be a sign explaining the rules to complete that particular challenge to continue going on the path.  If you come to a sign that is not the color of your team then you have gone the wrong way.  If anyone cheats and does not follow the rules then you will have to come back and start all over again.  I will know if you cheat because I have set up hidden cameras everywhere because I am Forge and you guys took a really long time to get here so I had lots of free time so…there are a LOT of cameras."

"I have one question." Said Pietro.  "What's the point of racing to get here if you just had us start at the same time?"

"That's YOUR fault for all showing up at the same time!" Forge answered.  "En sus marcas... consiga el sistema... VAN!!"


	4. The First Challange!

Everyone flinched and stared at Forge.

"On your mark get set go." Said Forge unenthusiastically.  And then all three teams darted off different paths.  A few minutes later, Jean came jogging up over the hill.

"Where's my team?" she asked.

"Let me explain the rules first." Said Forge.

MEANWHILE!!!

"I hope these tasks aren't TOO difficult!" said Evan as the Blue Team jogged down their little path.  Then they came up to a sign and a huge rock off to the side of the path.

"Man, this is going to be MY task!" said Lance as he cracked his knuckles.

"Wait!" said Kitty, grabbing his arm.  "Let's read the card first!  It says, _'Behind this rock is a pile of rope.  Someone who can walk through walls must go through the rock and retrieve the rope and bring it with you, continuing down the path.'"_

"Someone who can walk through walls?" Kurt said.  "That wouldn't be YOU, Kitty, would it?"

"Yeah, it's me!" said Kitty, being all proud of herself.  Then she walked through the wall and returned a few seconds later looking rather disappointed.  "It was just sitting there.  That was a really lame challenge."

"Well you have a really lame power." Said Lance.

"LANCE!!" yelled Kitty angrily.

"Guys, guys!" said Evan.  "Let's just keep going!"

MEANWHILE!!!

The Red Team was strolling nonchalantly down the path.

"Why are we strolling?" asked Scott suddenly.

"Why not?" asked Todd.

Then they started picking up the pace until they finally found a little sign in front of a huge gorge.

"It's red!" cheered St. John.  "It's ours!  YAY!!"

"It says, _'You will need someone who can leap across this giant gorge to press a button on the other side which will extend a bridge for the rest of the team to walk across.'_" Wanda read.

"Ooh!" said Todd.  "That's me!  I get a task!"  Then he got a big running start and leapt across the gorge but fell just short of the other side and plunged to his doom and he died.  But not really.  He actually made it all the way, thankfully and found the button with no trouble and pushed it.  Just like the sign said, a little electronic bridge extended out and connected to the other side.

"That was easy enough." Said Wanda.

"Speak for yourself!" said Todd when everyone had gotten over to the other side.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Why, OH WHY, did Jean have to have the first task?" complained Pietro as he ran around the little area they were waiting in, standing in front of a little sign that read, _"You will need someone who can fly to take you all to the top of this cliff where you will find the continuance of the path from there."_

"What if Jean won't even use her power?" Rogue said, sounding annoyed.

"I don't think she would do that, chéri." Remy said.

"Will you stop speaking French?!" yelled Pietro.  "I'm feeling very edgy right now and listening to you insert random words of a different language that I have to sit here and decipher isn't helping!"

Remy stared at Pietro long and hard.  "Très bien." He said finally.  "Mais tout I dit était chéri."

"STOP IT!!!" yelled Pietro.

Luckily, Jean came running up at that very moment.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late!" said Jean, taking a few deep breaths.  "Forge had to explain all the rules to me!  But thanks for waiting!"

"Aucun problème." Said Remy for the soul purpose of annoying Pietro.

"Tell him to stop speaking French!" Pietro whined.

"No!" said Jean.  "French is the language of love!"

"In case you three haven't noticed, we're kind of in a race here." Said Rogue, tapping her foot.  "And we have to get up this giant cliff using Jean's powers.  You WILL use them, right?"

"Of course!" said Jean.  "I'll use them what it's the rules!  All I have to do is levitate us to the top?  No problem!"  Then Jean used her powers to levitate everyone to the top of the cliff.  YAY!!

MEANWHILE!!!

"Look!" said Kurt.  "Another sign!"  This sign was in front of a large body of water with a bunch of huge rocks in the middle of it, leading like stepping-stones.  "This one says, _"You will need a someone who teleports.  You must teleport with your entire team to each individual rock and activate a button on each one.  Only when all buttons are pushed can you proceed down the path on the other side of the water.'"_

"Well, Kurt, this one's like yours!" said Kitty.

"All right, guys!" said Kurt.  "Grab on!"  Then they all held onto Kurt as he teleported to each rock, stepping on a little button as he went along.  There were about ten rocks so after a lot of teleportation, they finally landed on the other side of the water.

"I feel kinda dizzy…" said Lance.

"That wasn't too hard!" said Kurt.

"But what are we gonna have to do with this rope?" Evan wondered randomly just because he has to say at least one thing before we got to a…

MEANWHILE!!!

"What do you suppose our next task will be?" Scott wondered out loud to himself as he continued running down the path with the rest of his team.  "And who do you think will have to do it?"

"WAIT!!!" St. John yelled.  Everyone stopped and turned around.  "I lost my lighter again!"

"You never lost it in the first place!" Todd pointed out.

"I'm holding onto it, remember?" Scott said, waving the lighter around.

"Oh right." Said St. John.

"Why were you reaching for it anyway?" asked Wanda.

"I felt like burning something." St. John answered.

"Look, here's the sign!" said Todd as he leapt ahead of everyone else and pointed to a sign.  "It says, _'You will need someone who can fire a straight, steady blast.  You will have to blow up a rock about thirty meters ahead to continue your journey down the path.'"_

"Well I guess that's…" started Scott.

"YAY!!" cheered St. John.  "I get blow stuff up!"

"It's not YOU!" said Scott.  "It's ME!"

"Oh." Said St. John sadly.

They hustled about thirty meters until they came across a gigantic rock that was blocking their path.

"All right…" said Scott slowly, wondering how he could prolong this so that it wouldn't just end when he blasted the rock into smithereens.  But, unable to think of something, he decided to just belt out his battle cry that he had been waiting for a perfect time to say where he could look cool in front of people.  "For a better tomorrow!!"  And then he blew up the rock and all the chunks flew up in the air and crashed to the ground.

Even though the other three thought that was kind of knavish, Scott thought it was cool so he strutted happily through the rubble of the killed rock.

MEANWHILE!!!

"It's been a really long time since we last had a task." Said Rogue.

"Let's bet on who will get the next one!" declared Pietro.  "I bet it'll be me!  What do you think guys?"

"What makes you think that?" asked Jean.

"I just KNOW it!" Pietro replied as they came up to a little man sitting at a table with a sign in front of him.

"It reads, _'Find your best card player and defeat this man in a game of poker and he will allow you to pass.'"_ Rogue read.

Remy sat down in the chair across from the guy.  "Think you're good enough to take on Gambit?" he asked.

"Hey!" said Pietro.  "Who's to say that I'M not the best card player?!"

"Pietro, be quiet." Instructed Jean.

"You ready?" said the man.

"Ready." Said Remy, pulling out a deck of cards from his pocket and shuffling them with expertise.

"This is going to take forever!" complained Pietro.  "What's up with this task?!  He doesn't even have to use his powers!"

So they all waited around for a while.

"I'm going to go check how far the others are!" Pietro said as he ran off at super fast speeds.

"Have you almost beaten him?" Rogue asked, looking over Remy's shoulder as he played poker intensely.  She looked at his hand to see a diamond hand that was Royal Flush.  "Um…why don't you just go all out and beat him now?"

"Part of the game, chéri." Said Remy.  "Watching the opponent squirm."

"We don't have time for that!!" yelled Pietro as he ran back up.  "The other groups are already on their way to the third task!  It was bad enough that we had to wait around for Jean but now we have to sit through a card game?!"

"Très bien." sighed Remy as he put his cards down on the table to reveal his ridiculously excellent hand.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" yelled the crazy man as he melted into a pile of goo and the chair he was sitting on disintegrated.

"Well…that worked." Said Jean.  "Let's go!"  And then they all continued down their path.

MEANWHILE!!!

"All right." Said Evan.  "The sign says all I have to do is shoot spikes up there that are attached to ropes and we have to climb the ropes to the top."

"I am like SO not good at climbing!" whined Kitty.

"Climbing's no problem!" said Lance.  "You can hang onto me, Kitty."

"Yeah right, Lance!" said Kitty.  "I think I'd rather manage on my own."

"Even though I could so easily teleport to the top or climb this cliff without a rope, I don't want to risk Forge catching it on his video cameras and make us start over." Said Kurt.  "But that's okay because I'm really good at climbing too since I was in the circus for my entire life."

"And I can climb too…" said Evan hesitantly because he wanted to put in a comment too.  Then he shot the spikes up they attached the top of a cliff, letting the rope hang down.  "I'll go first." Said Evan as he grabbed the rope and started climbing.  Everyone else one by one started climbing up as well.

"This is totally way hard!" complained Kitty.  "We shouldn't have to do this!  Only Evan should since this is his event!  There should be like a button up there that makes stairs come down or like something like that!"

"Don't worry Kitty!" said Kurt since he was above her.  Then he teleported so he was on the rope underneath her.  "We're right behind you!  If you fall, I'll be here to catch you!"

"Thanks Kurt!" said Kitty sarcastically.  Then they kept climbing and climbing until they were finally at the top.  "That was TOTALLY out of line!" Kitty declared.  "That should not have had to be our task!  I'm telling the professor when we get back!"

MEANWHILE!!!

"How long are we going to have to do this for?" Wanda said impatiently as the Red Team trudged after St. John who was melting giant quantities of ice in front of them.

"It's some kind of never ending cavern!" Todd agreed.

"I think it's FUN!" said St. John.

"Are you sure we're supposed to be here?" Scott asked, looking back.

"Why else would there be a unnecessarily large amount of ice here for me to melt?" St. John said more to himself than to Scott.

They continued for ever so much longer.

"This is getting irritating." Said Scott, putting his hand on the rim of his sunglasses.  "If only I could blast through all this ice!"

"Don't do that!" yelled Todd.  "We'll have to start all over again!"

"Besides, I think we're almost out." Said Wanda, peering carefully through all the ice and seeing daylight.

Sure enough, within a few minutes, they were out of the cavern.

"Aw…no more burning stuff." Said St. John sadly as he handed his lighter over to Scott.

MEANWHILE!!!

"All right!" said Pietro as he ran up to the sign and dashed around it a couple hundred times as everyone else ran up to it.  He then read it over once or twice and didn't say anything.

"What's it say?" asked Jean.

"It says, _'Find a single person who can run up the cliff you see before you.  Then that person must use the power of telekinesis to lift a rock from this spot and transport to a caved in pathway and use the power to make things explosive to blow up the rocks in the way.'"_ Pietro read.

"So we all have to work together for this one!" said Jean happily.

"No." said Rogue.  "It says a SINGLE person.  I have to take all your powers and do it by myself."

Everyone stood there in silence.

"How about we drop out of the race right now?" asked Pietro.  "I'd rather not go through that."

"Like you know anything happens." Said Rogue, rolling her eyes.  "You're unconscious the whole time."

"Yeah, that's what I don't like." Pietro said.

"I would have to agree avec mon ami." Remy agreed.  "It's never happened to me but I would like to keep it that way."

"Come on guys!" said Rogue.  "Don't be such pussies!!"

"How about I run up the side of the cliff, Jean flies up there and then Remy just tosses an explosive rock up there and Jean catches it and then blows up this little cave in place?!" Pietro suggested.  "You can stand idly by, Rogue."

"But this is my task!" Rogue pointed out.

"We can't cheat!" Jean said.

"And we can't be sent back to the beginning." Remy added.

"But I don't want to!" Pietro whined.

"Well neither do I." Said Rogue.  "Because the last thing I want is to be inside your head."

"My head rules." Said Pietro.

Then Jean used her telepathy to secretly tell everyone to jump Pietro at the same time and then Rogue ran up and touched him and then she touched Remy and Jean too!!  AND THEN SHE WAS AN ALL POWERFUL BEING WHO COULD RUN REALLY FAST AND MAKE THINGS EXPLOSIVE!!!  THAT WOULD RULE!!  IF ONLY SHE COULD SHAKE THE WORLD!!!!

So then she completed her task.  Then came the hard part of waiting for everyone to regain consciousness, especially now that she had a piece of Pietro and she vowed that from now on, she would be a little more understanding and sympathetic of his extreme impatience and ADHD.

MEANWHILE!!!

"All right!" said Lance, running up to a huge rock with a sign in front of it.  "Finally I get to shake the world!"

"Is it just me or are we encountering a whole lot of huge rocks?" said Kurt.

"We are." Evan said.

"So all I have to do is destroy this huge rock?" Lance said, sounding somewhat disappointed.

The other three took a few steps backwards as they heard the electric guitar music and Lance started shaking the world with his eyes rolled back in his head!!  But then there was a flash of light and everyone found themselves standing at the bottom of the mountain with Forge standing in front of them.

"Why are we back here?" asked Kitty.

"Maybe we won!" said Kurt.  "We finished all our tasks!"

"Negative!" said Forge.  "Did you read the sign?"

The four looked at each other.

"Did you or did you not read the sign?" Forge said, putting his hands on his hips.

"We didn't…" said Evan.

"If you HAD, then you would have seen that for that task, you merely had to hold onto Kitty's hands and walk through the rock to the other side." Forge said.

"What?!" demanded Lance.  "It was my turn!  Kitty already did something!"

"Who said there was a task for each person?!" Forge said.  "Did I say that?  Did I say that?  I don't remember saying that.  I don't think I said that.  So what are you four doing standing around here?!  Everyone's getting to the top while you're staying here talking to me!"

"Let's go!!" said Kurt as the four of them started off down their path again.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Hm…when do you suppose our next…" started Scott but then he spotted a sign.  "Ah!  Here it is!  It says, _'Work as a team to fight the Yeti.  Everyone must have a turn.'"_

"A yeti?" said Todd but as soon as he said that, a big hairy yeti jumped out from a bush and started frothing and growling and snarling.

"Okay, we have to make sure everyone does something to kill the yeti." Said Scott.

"FIGHT the yeti, not KILL the yeti." Said the yeti.

"Oh, my bad." Said Scott, rereading the sign.  "All right, Todd, you spit slim at him, St. John, you singe him, Wanda, you do whatever you do and then I'll finish him off by blasting him off!"

"It's FIGHT the yeti!" said yeti.

"Fine!" Scott.  "We'll fight the yeti and then when he dies we'll…"

"FIGHT THE YETI!!!" screamed the whole team and the yeti.

"WHATEVER!!!" yelled Scott.

"Here, I'll bargain with you." Said the yeti suddenly.  "You all use your powers and create a spectacular lightshow and I'll say that you hit me and defeated me.  Just don't blast me with anything or hurt me."

"Mr. McCoy, is that you?" said Scott.

"Uh…No!" said the yeti, thumping around.  "I'm a horrible yeti!!"

"All right guys…let's…uh…FIGHT the yeti!" declared Scott.  Then the group shot their powers off in random direction until the yeti randomly clutched his heart and collapsed.

"I am defeated!" said the yeti.

"A+ performance, Mr. McCoy." Said Scott.

"Thanks Scott." Said the yeti.  "I mean…I'm a yeti!  Now pass before I decide that I am not defeated!  The goal is just a little further!"

"All right!" said St. John AND Wanda since they haven't said anything yet as everyone ran past the yeti.

MEANWHILE!!!

"We made it!!" said Jean as the four of them ran to the top.  "Look, there's a sign here!  It says, _'Find someone who is really fast to go down and retrieve a key from Forge to open this box which will have the clue to your next Checkpoint in it.'_

"I'm there!" said Pietro, dashing off.

Just then, the Red Team came barreling around the corner since there are corners on mountains.

"YEAH!!" cheered St. John.  "We're at the top!!"

"We're not first but we're still here!" said Scott.

"Actually, we still have to complete a task." Said Jean.  "So technically, you ARE first."

"Don't say that!" said Rogue.

"So we ARE first!" said Todd.  "Look, here's the directions to the next Checkpoint!  See ya!"

"Hey look!" said St. John, picking up a pile of clothing.  "Red Team costumes and hats and all other red accessories!"

"As if this couldn't get any dorkier." Said Wanda.

"And look, here are some green ones for us!" said Jean.

"Let's go!" said the Red Team as they grabbed their directions and boarded the helicopter that was supplied for them since they came in first place.

"What's taking Pietro so long?!" said Rogue.  "I thought he was fast!"

MEANWHILE!!!

"And that's when he told me that mind and soul is one." Said Forge as he fished around in one of the drawers in the desk that all his television camera things sat on.  "But then I corrected his grammar and told him that mind and soul ARE one."

"Have you found it yet?!" Pietro demanded.

"Not yet." Said Forge.  "I just can't remember where I put that key!"

He stood there thinking for a minute.

"I don't have all day!!" yelled Pietro.

"Well obviously not!" said Forge.  "You're in a RACE!!  Oh wait…I remember now!  I put it in my pocket!"  Then he pulled a key out of his pocket and handed it to Pietro.  Pietro grabbed the key and left without saying thank you.

Then he ran ALL the way back up the mountain but it really only took him less than a second.

"All right!" said Pietro.  "I got the key!"  Then they unlocked the box and got their directions.  And they also took their awesome green costumes and began descending the mountain but there were stairs on the other side so it wasn't hard or anything.  All of a sudden, Kurt came out of nowhere.

"Aw man…" he said and then teleported away back to where his group was.  "I saw the green team up there…and the helicopter's gone so the red team probably was up there before them."

"Weak man!" said Evan.

"So what are we waiting for?!" demanded Lance.  "Let's climb this stupid rope AGAIN and keep going!"

MEANWHILE!!!

"Our directions said that we should just come to you for the clue to the next checkpoint." Said Scott.

"Yup." Said Forge as he pulled out two sets of handcuffs and linked Scott and St. John.

"Hey, what gives?!" demanded St. John and Scott.

"You two are having a little bit of controversy." Said Forge.  "So, in order to build better teamwork, you two will be handcuffed together until you reach the next checkpoint.  Since you came in first, it is only two of being handcuffed together."

"Wow, thanks." Said Scott.

"So, your next checkpoint is in France." Said Forge, giving them a slip of paper.  "You can take your complimentary helicopter there.  It will be annoying, but you will get there eventually."

"ALL RIGHT!!!" cheered the Red Team as they all leapt into the helicopter and took off just as the Green Team came running down the mountain.

"Welcome back!" said Forge.

"We have to come to you for directions?" said Jean.

"Well duh." Said Forge as he whipped out two pairs of handcuffs and linked Pietro, Remy and Rogue together so that Pietro was in the middle!!

"What is this?!" Pietro said immediately as he started fidgeting and moving around in attempt to get free of the handcuffs that imprisoned him so.  "I can't get loose!  I can't get loose!"

Rogue and Remy only looked at Forge with skeptical glares.

"Since you came in second, three of you have to be handcuffed together and you get a car as opposed to a helicopter." Forge explained.  "Since you three are the most controversial out of the four of you.  Actually…really, Pietro's the only controversial one so I put him in the middle and Jean's just such a team player than I didn't think she deserved to be…"

"All right, we get it." Said Remy.

"Okay, here's your car!" said Forge, stepping aside.  "Go on off to France!"  Then Jean climbed into the driver's seat and everyone else got in the back since they were handcuffed together.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Okay." Said Evan as the Blue Team came running up to the rock that they had previously tried to shake the world to get rid off.  "All we have to do is walk through this and we'll be at the top."

They all grabbed Kitty's hands and frolicked through the rock and then stumbled across the peak of the mountain where they discovered little blue uniforms they could wear as well as a piece of paper that told them to go and see Forge!!

So, instead of climbing down all the stairs, Kurt just teleported them to the bottom where Forge was waiting.

"Welcome back!" said Forge as he handcuffed them all together in a line that went Lance, Kitty, Evan, Kurt.  "Sorry but you're in last place."

"Why'd you handcuff us together?!" demanded Lance.

"It's your punishment for coming in last." Forge replied.  "Your next checkpoint is in France.  Here's the car you have been supplied with." He paused.  "Oh and by the way…if any of you break your handcuffs, go through your handcuffs or teleport out of your handcuffs then you will be penalized for breaking the rules."

They all hopped in the car.  Since Kurt was on the end, he got the drive and everyone else had to squish next to him.


	5. Onward to France!

MEANWHILE!!!

"COME ON GUYS!!" yelled St. John over the loud helicopter noise.  "LET'S START A ROUND!!!  ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT…"

"HOW ABOUT NOT?!" yelled Scott, also over the helicopter noise.  But suddenly, the noise stopped.

"Hey, are we in France already?" Todd said, looking out the window.

"No." said the helicopter man.  "This is as far as I'm supposed to take you.  You have to find your own way from here."  Then this man used his super powers to push everyone out of the helicopter and then he flew away.

"That was mean!" said St. John.  "But can we start a round now?  Row row row your boat gently down the stream!"

"Row row row your boat…" started Todd but Wanda zapped him.

"We have to find a ride." Said Scott.

"We must look like pretty big weirdos!" said St. John.  "With you and I handcuffed together and us all wearing the same thing!  My, my, my.  I don't think I would stop for us if I were a driver and I saw us.  Can I have my lighter now?"

"No!" Scott yelled.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Guys, I hate to say it but we are so low on gas that…" started Jean but then the car putt putted to a stop.  Luckily they were a long abandoned stretch of highway so it was okay to just leave their car in the middle of the road.

"Now what?" asked Rogue as the four of them got out of the car.

"We have to get gas." Said Remy.

"Pietro you could…" started Rogue as she turned around and remembered that the three of her teammates were handcuffed together.  "Never mind…"

"What?!" demanded Pietro.  "WHAT could I do?!  What could I possibly do when I'm handcuffed in between you two?!"

"Well, I was going so suggest that you run down this ridiculously long stretch of this road and get gas for the car but I guess that's not possible." Rogue said, crossing her arms.

"He wouldn't be able to do it anyway!" Jean said.  "Remember?  We're not using our powers!"

"Jean, stop being stupid." Said Rogue.  "There's no way we could possibly go this entire race without…" But she was interrupted because she suddenly felt a familiar feeling surging through her entire body!  And that feeling was the one she felt when she was stealing people's powers and then she looked over to see that she had accidentally touched Pietro when neither of them were paying attention!!  OH NO!!!

This meant, of course, that not only did Rogue have to deal with Pietro's impatience once again, but they would also have to deal with Pietro's unconscious body.

MEANWHILE!!!

"I can't believe this!" complained Kitty as Lance opened the hood of the car and much steam poured from it.  "We got a like defective car!"

"Maybe it's because we came in last place." Kurt sighed.

"Well what are we driving for anyway?" Lance asked.

"Are you suggesting that we cheaply teleport again?" Evan questioned.

"Yes." Said Lance.  "Yes I am."

"Don't you guys remember last time we teleported around?" Kitty said.  "We ended up in last place anyway!"

"But just imagine how far in last we would be if we didn't teleport!" Lance said.

"Yeah Kitty!" said Kurt.

"Come on, Kitty!" said Evan.

"Well fine…it's not like I was against it." Said Kitty.  

"YAY!!" cheered Kurt.  "Blaue Mannschaft!!"

"Um…what is that supposed to mean?" said Evan.

"Blue Team." Said Kurt.  "Remember that.  Maybe we can all cheer it next time we win something."

"How about the FIRST time we win something?" Lance said.  Then they all teleported.  Of course, since their destination wasn't exactly nearby, they had to do rapid teleportation meaning they couldn't go DIRECTLY to France.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Thanks again for picking us up." Said Scott to a crazy truck driver.  The Red Team and the truck driver were all squished up front.

"Quoi que." Said the truck driver in a voice that sounded like he had been smoking since he was born.

"So does that mean that we're still in Spain or is that a French thing?" Todd whispered to Wanda.

"Don't come near me." Said Wanda.

"Excuse me sir, are we in France and Spain right now?" asked Scott.

The trunk driver man only looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"All right…" said Scott.  "Do you speak English by any chance?"

The driver only really ignored Scott.  Even though he really DID speak English, he just didn't feel like talking to the hitchhikers that he had picked up just because he's a nice guy!

MEANWHILE!!!

"How much farther do we have to go?" complained Rogue as the Green Team walked rather slowly because of their hindering handcuffs and the fact that they had to drag Pietro's unconscious body along with them because Jean refused to make their lives easier and float them along.  "Oh geez, did I just say that again?"

"Yes." Said Remy.

"I'm starting to get impatient with my impatient self." Said Rogue.  "All thanks to Pietro here."

"It's okay." Said Remy since he really didn't care all that much.

"Jean, couldn't you just fly us all there?" Rogue asked.

"No!" said Jean.  "I've already told you that I'm NOT using my powers!"

"This is getting really irritating." Said Rogue.  "There's nothing in the rules that says that we can't use our powers."

Then they passed by a payphone.

"I'm going to call Professor X right now and ask him." Said Rogue, picking up the receiver and dialing 1-800-COLLECT because it's the obvious choice and it goes together like an angel with wings.  Then she called up the Professor.

"Xavier Institute." said the professor.

"Hi Professor, it's me Rogue." Said Rogue.

"Why hello Rogue." Said Professor X.  "Are you enjoying yourself?  Are you enhancing your bonds with your teammates?"

"Um…yeah." Said Rogue, rolling her eyes.  "But for some reason, Jean seems to think that we're not supposed to be using our powers."

"No," said Professor Xavier.  "The point of this race is to use your powers and build off of them.  I encourage the use of powers as long as you be careful that no one sees you."

"Thanks Professor." Said Rogue, hanging up the phone and turning to Jean.  "You heard him, right?"

"Yes!" said Jean.  "I shall now use my powers as much as possible!"  Then she started flying so she was about two inches off the ground so it looked like she was standing but not really.  "Let's go now!"  Then she used her powers to make everyone fly to France.

"Wait…we're going to France?" said Remy.

"Well YEAH." Said Rogue.


	6. The Second Checkpoint!

MEANWHILE!!!

"YAY!!" cheered the Red Team as they ran into the checkpoint area.  "WE FOUND THE CHECKPOINT!!!"  We're not telling you how they got there.  They just did.

"Congratulations, Red Team!" said Storm.  "I will be your Checkpoint Advisor person.  Now, I realize that your last checkpoint was quite the physical one but this Checkpoint tests your minds.  I will ask you a question about one of your teammates and you must all come together and answer them except for the person who the question is about.  When you answer the question right, I will give you the location of one of the keys to your handcuffs.  Ah!  I see you only have one!  So you will only have to answer one question correctly."

"All right!" said Scott.  "We've got this in the bag!  The other teams aren't even here yet!  We've been bonding great, right guys?  We're great.  We're tight."

"Okay," said Storm.  "Your question is this, and you can't answer St. John."

"Yay!" cheered St. John.  "The question is about me!!"

"What is St. John's last name?" Storm asked.  "You have three guesses."

The other three paused.

"You guys don't know?" St. John said in a hurt tone.

"We never asked!" said Todd.  "And you never told us!"

"But we're a team!" St. John said.  "You should have just known!  I know all of YOUR last names!"

"Do you really?" asked Scott.

"…No…" said St. John.  "I was hoping that you wouldn't call my bluff."

"Three guesses?" said Wanda.  "How about…Smith?"

"I'm sorry, that's incorrect." Said Storm.

"Guys, my last name isn't exactly one that you can just pull out of the air and expect to get right." St. John warned them.

All of a sudden, the Blue Team teleported out of nowhere and looked around.

"Hey!" said Evan.  "Is this the checkpoint?"

"It is!" said Storm.  Then Storm began explaining the rules to the Blue Team.

"Quick, St. John, give us a hint!" Todd whispered.

"That's cheating!" said St. John.

"But the Blue Team's here!  We can't let them get ahead of us!" Scott agreed.

"Oh fine…" said St. John just as Storm turned around.  "It rhymes with Ballerdyce!"

"I'm sorry, that's cheating." Said Storm since St. John wasn't exactly whispering or anything.  "So I'm going to give you a five minute penalty and a new question.  Your five minute penalty starts now while I ask the questions to the Blue Team."  She then turned to the Blue Team.

"Aw man!" said Todd.

"Don't worry guys, they have three pairs of handcuffs so they have to answer three questions." Said Scott.  "And if the questions are THIS obscure then this won't be too much of a penalty."

"Ready Blue Team?" said Storm.  "Evan, you cannot answer this question.  What is Evan's favorite rock band?"

"Oh I know this one!" said Kitty immediately.  "It's the Festering Boils."

"Right!" said Storm as she handed Evan a ripped piece of paper.  "Here is the location of the first key.  Now for the second question.  Kitty, you cannot answer this question.  What is Kitty's real name?"

"Katherine," said the rest of the team almost at the same time.

"Right again!" said Storm as she handed Kitty a piece of paper.  "Here's the location of your second key!"

"I think our five minute penalty is up now!" said Todd suddenly.

"No," said Storm, looking at her watch.  "You still have three and a half more minutes."  She looked back at the Blue Team.  "Kurt, you cannot answer this.  What does 'Mannschaft' mean in English?"

"Come on guys!" said Kurt.  "YAY!!"

"Oh!" said Kitty.  "It's um…oh…it's either blue or team…"

"Well, it's gotta be team because blue sounded like blue." Said Evan.

Storm stood there.

"Team." Said Lance since she obviously wasn't processing that that was their answer.

"CORRECT!!" cheered Storm as she pressed a button and confetti and streamers dropped on them.

"YAY!!" cheered the Blue Team.  "Blaue Mannschaft!!" Of course, they pronounced it completely wrong but just be surprised that they even remembered it for the most part.

So, they received their locations and teleported off.

"It's not fair that they're allowed to teleport!" said Scott.  They turned around and faced Storm who was looking at her watch intently.  After standing there in silence for a little over a minute, Storm looked up.

"All right!" she said.  "You ready for your question?"

Just then, the Green Team came flying over.

"Wait, they can fly?!" Scott said.

"Welcome!" said Storm as she began explaining the rules again.

"Hey!" said Todd.  "This is wasting all our time!  They're getting further ahead!  What's our question?!"

"Fine…Green Team, give me one minute." Said Storm.  "Red Team, your question is this.  Todd, you cannot answer this question.  How long is Todd's tongue?"

"Hey, _I _don't even know that!" said Todd.  "It's not like I've ever measured it and even if I did, I wouldn't go around sharing it with my teammates!"

"While you discuss it, I will ask questions to the Green Team." Said Storm, turning to the Green Team.  At that moment, Pietro woke up.

"Welcome back." Said Remy.

"What?" said Pietro.

"All right, here is your first question." Said Storm.  "What nationality is Pietro's name?"

"It's Italian!" said Pietro immediately.

"Pietro!" said the Green Team.

"I'm sorry but I'm afraid you missed the rules." Said Storm solemnly.  "You are not allowed to answer questions about yourself so I cannot include that answer so you will have to answer a different one."

Then she turned back to the Red Team.

"Have you come up with an answer?" she asked.

"Um…ten feet?" said Scott.

"Sorry, that is incorrect." Said Storm, going back to the Green Team.  "Here is your question."

FIVE MINUTES LATER!!!

"All right, Green Team, good luck!" said Storm as the Green Team flew off.  Then she turned around to the Red Team.  "All right, Red Team.  I've dumbed down the questions a little so you might have a chance of answering this one.  Wanda, you can't answer this one."

"Finally!" said Todd.  "A question about Wanda!  I'll be able to get this one."

"What is Wanda's natural hair color?" Storm asked.  Wanda slapped her forehead.

"Obviously black!" said Todd.  "Because that red is just way too red to be natural!"

"I'm sorry, that's the incorrect answer." Said Storm.

"WHAT?!" yelled the whole Red Team except for Wanda.

"I dyed my hair so that I wouldn't look like my father or Pietro." Said Wanda, crossing her arms.  "It used to be white."

"HOW WERE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?!" St. John yelled dramatically.

"Because Pietro is my twin and he has white hair!" said Wanda.  "My whole family has white hair!"

MEANWHILE!!!

"All right!" said Kurt as the Blue Team suddenly stopped teleporting in the midst of some market place in the middle of France where the little map that Storm drew for them told them to go.  "Now it's someplace in this marketplace and we just have to find it."

"As long as we don't have to teleport anymore, I'm fine." Said Lance as he nearly held back throwing up all over Evan.

"Hey!  Watch it, man!" said Evan nervously.  "Puke on someone else!"

"So, like, what do we do?" asked Kitty.  "Just ask around for the key or something?"

"Storm's little note says that three people are each holding a key." Said Kurt.  "I guess the easiest way to get them is to ask."

Kurt then turned around to a random vendor.  "Do you happen to have a handcuff key?" he asked that random vendor.

"Je fais l'aucun parle anglais." Said the French guy with a shrug.

"What?" asked Lance louder than he should have.

"I'm assuming that he doesn't speak English." Said Kurt.  Then he shrugged happily.

"Is French one of those MANY languages that you said you spoke?" asked Kitty.

"Nope." Said Kurt.

"Then which ones DO you speak?" asked Evan.

"German, Italian, English, Portuguese and Swedish." Said Kurt as he counted on his fingers.  Of course, he had to use TWO hands to count out such a large number. 

"None of which can help us right now." Sighed Evan.  Kurt shrugged happily again.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Merci monsieur." Said Remy as some random vendor handed him a key.  He, of course, unlocked himself from Pietro.

"Oh, so free yourself!" said Pietro with an annoyed groan.

"Well, I freed you as well, mon ami." Said Remy.  "You take deux keys to be unlocked." Then he held up two fingers and grinned creepily at Pietro.

"Why did I have to be in the middle?" whined Pietro.

"Why did I have to be handcuffed to YOU?" asked Rogue as she went to dope slap Pietro but since Pietro is THE FASTEST PERSON IN THE WORLD, he had quick enough reflexes to grab Rogue's wrists.  Unfortunately for Pietro, Rogue was wearing short sleeves to in grabbing her WRIST, he also grabbed her SKIN and…well…you know the drill.

"Now he's unconscious again!" said Jean as she flew over from hovering in the corner by herself.

"Now I know more about PIETRO than I know about myself!" sighed Rogue.

MEANWHILE!!

"All right…" sighed Storm as she ran her fingers through her hair in a frustrated manner.  "There is NO way you can get this next one wrong."

"We're ready Storm!" said Scott getting all determined.

"Okay…this question is about St. John." Said Storm.  "And as an added bonus, I'm allowing him to answer as well." 

"Yay!" cheered St. John.

"The question is…what does St. John enjoy playing with?" 

"HIS LIGHTER!!" blurted out Todd before the team could confirm with each other.

"That is incorrect!" Storm groaned.  "The card says that he likes to play with FIRE."

"I like to play with them both." Said St. John.

"Exactly!" said Scott.  "Does it HAVE to be what it says on the card?  Isn't our answer right as well?"

"Uh…just go!" said Storm as she thrust a slip of paper in Wanda's hand.

"We did it!" cheered the red team as they ran out the door in search of the single key that they thought they'd NEVER get.

MEANWHILE!!

"Hey look!" Kitty pointed out.  Every looked at where she was pointing to see that some random vendor had three keys with the X-Men symbol on them hanging behind him.  

"We don't even HAVE to learn how to ask for a key in French!" Lance cheered as he tossed the French/English dictionary that they were reading into a puddle of mud.  Then he elbowed Kurt.  "Go and get it."

"But what if we get punished for cheating?" asked Kurt.

"Well, we were working together to get the keys!" said Lance excitedly.  "Evan bought the dictionary, I tossed it in the mud, Kitty pointed out the keys and YOU got them!"

"Sniff…" sniffled Evan as he picked the muddy dictionary out of the puddle but it was already far too ruined to be salvaged.

"Mein gott…" sighed Kurt.  "I feel as though my teleportation powers are being abused."

"They are." Admitted Lance.

"Wait!" said Kitty.  "Kurt can't teleport when he's stuck to us!"

"Then we'll either all have to go, or Kurt can just teleport OUT of the handcuffs." Said Lance as he smiled deviously. 

"Um…" thought Kurt but then he suddenly had a burst of SOME sort of bodily chemical as he ran up, grabbed the keys from under the guy's nose and teleported away while the vendor swore in French.

They appeared in some sort of alleyway and unlocked themselves.  "Do we have to go back to Storm now?" asked Evan as he swung his arms around simply because he could now.

"I think Storm will like tell us where to go next." Said Kitty.  "She never like said that we had to go back but maybe she like just forgot."

"OKAY!!" said the entire blaue Mannschaft as they teleported to Storm.

MEANWHILE!!

 "I'M FREE!!" cheered Pietro as he ran around in circles really really fast.  Then to prove that he was REALLY free, he ran far away.

"We have been pulling through with AWESOME teamwork!" said Jean as flew around the rest of her group who were huddled in a bunch.

"Could you please stop doing that." Said Rogue.  "We're in the middle of a public place and most people CAN'T fly."

"But I must use my powers as much as possible!" said Jean.  "So said Professor Xavier!"

"But he also said to make sure that no one saw!" said Rogue.

"Oh." Said Jean as she landed.  "Then I shall NEVER use my powers in public but use them as much as possible when there are not other people around."

"Very good, Jean." Said Rogue.  "That's what we've been doing this whole time."

As she said that, Pietro ran back to the group at the speed of light and stopped on a dime.

"Except for Pietro." Rogue corrected.

"What do we do now, équipe verte?" asked Remy.

"Did you only speak French because I came back?" asked Pietro.

"No." said Remy.  "We're in France, mon ami."

"Don't call me that!" Pietro yelled.

MEANWHILE!!

"Does anyone know any French?" asked Wanda as she held up the paper that Storm had given them. 

"I know some Australian lingo that I just haven't been using at the risk that I may confuse you all." Said St. John as he flipped his light open and shut casually.

"Well, Australian is English so that doesn't exactly help us." Said Scott.  "Hey!  When'd you get that back?!"

"It was easy considering we're forced to be so close!" St. John said.  "And you're not getting it back!"

"So does anyone know any French?" Wanda asked again.   Every shook their heads and bowed them in shame.

"Maybe we could just look up the word 'key' in a French/English dictionary and walk around while just repeating that word over and over." Suggested Todd.

"That idea is SO stupid that it just might work!" Scott said as he went to run into the convenient store that they just so happened to be standing in front of but the fact that he was handcuffed to St. John who was not ready to start running into the store caused them both to topple over in a heap of goodness.

So Todd, to save them further humiliation, hopped into the store and bought the dictionary.  It was easy because why shouldn't it be?

"Key…key…key…" said Todd as he flipped through the dictionary.

"It starts with a 'K' you idiot." Said Wanda.

"I knew that but thanks anyway Shnookums!" said Toad as he opened to the right page.  "Here it is!  Clef?  That seems too weird to be right."

"So we have to walk around town saying 'clef' over and over until someone gives us the keys to the handcuffs that we are most unfortunately stuck in?" asked Scott with a sigh.  "And to think we used to be in first…"

"Yeah…" sighed St. John.


	7. Onward to Germany!

MEANWHILE!!

"GOD SPEED!!" Storm waved as the bus containing the blue team pulled out of the station. 

"Here's to our GREAT come back!!" Evan said as he high-fived the whole Blue Team.  "Here we are, coming all the way from FAR last and on our way to the next task in Germany!"

"I'd like to think of it as some sort of REWARD for making me teleport so much." Said Kurt with a giddy smile as he bounced around in his seat.

"And if we get to Germany and you suddenly tell us that German isn't one of the 'many languages you speak' then we're going to disown you as a teammate." Lance threatened Kurt.

"German's my first language, Lance." Said Kurt.  Then he looked as though he suddenly remembered something.  "GUYS!!  Can we go visit my parents?!"

"No Kurt." Said Kitty.  "Besides…German is, like, a big country!  What if your parents live on the other side of the country!"

"They don't!" Kurt whined as he pointed outside.  "They live right down that road we just passed!"

"How long have we been in Germany?" asked Evan.  

"Not too long." Said Kurt.  "You just haven't been paying attention.  Now let's go!"  Then Kurt grabbed onto all of his teammates and teleported out of the bus.  "Now you HAVE to come!"

"WHY YOU!!" Lance yelled.  "I don't want to lose this race!"

"I NEVER get to see my parents!" Kurt whined.  "I see them once, maybe TWICE a year and when am I going to be in GERMANY ever again?!"

MEANWHILE!!

"We have to go to Germany?" asked Remy as Storm explained the whole shpeal to the Green Team.

"Yes." Said Storm.  "You will each get a bicycle that you will have to ride there."

"A bike?" Rogue groaned.  "You've GOT to be kidding me!  We have to ride a bike from France to Germany!"

"Yes." Said Storm.

"Is the Professor trying to kill us?" she asked as she slumped down in a chair.

"Can I just run?" asked Pietro.

"No." said Storm.  "You must ride the bike."

"This is going to be fun!" said Jean as she hovered in the room.  They weren't in public so she HAD to use her powers.  "I can feel myself getting stronger already!"

"Jean, just use your powers like you normally would." Rogue insisted.  "I swear, this whole race thing has got you way too excited."

"But I just know that this is benefiting me in so many ways!" Jean said contently.

"If I were you, I would start." Said Storm.  "The other team got a bus and the last team should be here shortly."

"Let's go guys!!" said Pietro as he pedaled off so fast that no one saw him leave.  They all sat there in silence for a minute until he suddenly came all the way back looking annoyed.  "What's taking so long?!  I could only wait in Germany for so long!"

"All right, let's all leave TOGETHER!" Jean said as she started pedaling but at regular, HUMAN speed.

"And maybe we can arrive at Germany TOGETHER." Said Rogue, looking at Pietro but he had already pedaled off at the speed of sound again.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Clef?" Scott said in a voice that sounded very similar to a whine.  "Clef?  Why am I the only one doing this?"

"Keep looking, mate." Said St. John from the group with Todd and Wanda.

"Hey!" said Scott, looking at what he was handcuffed to only to see a shopping cart.  "When did this happen?!"

"While you were wandering around saying 'Clef'." Wanda said.  "Some guy came up and gave it to us but we didn't tell you so we hooked you to a shopping cart."

"Come on!" said Scott.  "We're already really far behind!!  Why do you guys have to be so evil?!"

"Fine…" said Todd, unlocking Scott's handcuffs.

"All right!" said Scott.  "Let's get back to Storm!!"  Then they sprinted around the corner only to crash right into Storm who was just walking around for no reason.

"Oh!" she said.  "I see you found your key!  Well, the next checkpoint is in Germany and here is your means of transportation!"

She pulled four pogo sticks out from behind her back.

"I think it would just be faster to walk." Said Wanda.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Mamma!!  Vati!!" Kurt called, slamming the door open to see his aged adoptive parents conveniently standing right there.  "Überraschung! Ich bin Haupt!"

"…" said his parents, looking Kurt up and down.

"Oh right." Said Kurt, turning back to his team who were standing there looking annoyed.  "I forgot that my parents don't know about my image inducer." Then he looked back at his family and began explaining stuff in German.  Then he turned off his inducer, took it off and set it down on the table.  

"KURT!!" said his German parents excitedly as they bombarded Kurt.

They began talking in German and catching up on old times while hugging Kurt and inquiring about his friends and pointing out the fact that Kurt's never brought home friends before.  Of course, Kitty, Lance and Evan had no idea what they were saying so it was all good!!

"Ug!" said Kurt.  "They want you to look at baby pictures of me."

"Wow!" said Kitty, feeling honored.  Then Kurt's dad came running in with some photo albums and slammed them down on the table.

"Kurt, müssen Sie der Übersetzer sein." He said.

"My dad says that I have to be the translator." Kurt said to the blue team.

"Well this is annoying." Said Evan.

MEANWHILE!!!

"I'm starting to slow down!" Rogue said as she watched the bike carrying Pietro and Remy get farther and farther away.  Pietro was pedaling while Remy was simply going along for the ride.  Rogue had figured that since she had touched Pietro more today than she had in her entire life, that she MUST have absorbed his powers.  And she was right.  So Jean rode along with Rogue as she pedaled at semi-warp speed behind Pietro.

Unfortunately, Pietro's magic was starting to wear off and Rogue slipped further and further behind.

"He… doesn't even notice that we're not behind him anymore." Said Rogue as she struggled and panted and wheezed to keep up.  As you know, Pietro can run long distances and he NEVER seems to get tired!!  That's nuts!  So since Pietro's powers are wearing off of Rogue, she's getting tired now!

"I shall telepathically get in touch with him!" said Jean as she put her hands up to her head and concentrated really hard on Pietro's mind which rushed around about as fast as he did.  "Maybe I'll just lift him off the bike so he can't pedal anymore."

So Jean did just that.  Unfortunately for Pietro and Remy, Jean didn't SEE herself doing this so when she lifted Pietro off the bike, the bike continued moving with Remy sitting on the back of it.  If the bike were moving at normal speed, Remy would have been able to jump off but since it was moving at PIETRO speed, Remy was head first into a tree before he even realized Pietro was gone.

Rogue and Jean eventually reached Pietro was just hovering in midair looking VERY annoyed.

"What was up with that?!" he demanded.  "Here I was going SLOWER so that you could keep up with me and you go and pull a stunt like that?!  Now Remy's stuck in a tree and my bike is ruined!"

"Like you even NEED a bike!" Rogue yelled as if that was all she even listened to.  She and Jean dismounted their bikes and walked over to the tree in which Remy had his head stuck in very unrealistically as he struggled foolishly to pull it out.

Suddenly, the tree started emitting a splendiferous glow.  Rogue and Jean stared at the tree for a second before ducking and covering the way the safety videos had taught them.  The tree glowed for a few seconds before exploding suddenly.

Remy sat among the trees charred remains and shook his head as if everything that just happened did NOT just happen.

"We were starting to doubt that you were actually a mutant." Said Jean with a laugh.  "That was the first time you've used your powers this WHOLE time."

"The situation has never arisen." Remy said casually.  He then pulled a band-aid out of his pocket and applied it to the tiny cut that was on his forehead; the ONLY wounds he has to show from two events that should have killed him. 

MEANWHILE!!

"Are we the only team that doesn't have some sort of special way of getting from Point A to Point B faster?" Scott sighed as the Read Team's plane from France to Germany took off.

"Well…" said Todd because Scott was stuck sitting next to him because Wanda didn't want to sit next to Todd and Scott didn't want to sit next to St. John.  "The Blue Team has cheated SO bad with Kurt's teleportation abilities that he was specifically told NOT to use.  The Green Team can fly via Jean or go really fast via Pietro.  Also, Rogue could be ANYONE she wants!"

"That was a rhetorical question." Said Scott with a sigh as he struggled to open his little package of peanuts.  "Why do they call these 'FUN peanuts' anyway?!  Do the companies have fun trying to make people open them?!"

Meanwhile, Wanda and St. John were FORCED to sit in first class because there were too many people in coach where Todd and Scott were so the stewardesses told them to sit up where all the beautiful people roam.  Scott smartly took St. John's lighter away and held onto it but he was still a little worried because Wanda and St. John were the most unstable people he knew and they were in an airplane without some sort of supervision.

"Look!" marveled St. John as he looked around at all of the features of the first class section.  His and Wanda's seats were facing each other and there was a table separating them.  "We get our own television!  And this chair reclines all the way!  Oh and we also get…"

"For the lovely couple, we will be serving a wonderful candlelit dinner courtesy of the captain." Said the butler/stewardess who, helpfully, spoke English.  He then pulled out a tablecloth and spread it upon the table and lit two long candles.

"Oooh…candlelit…" said St. John as he gazed upon the candles.

"If I see these candles so much as move in an odd way, I'm blowing them out." Threatened Wanda.

"But wouldn't it be really cool if there were some sort of show going on with them?" asked St. John.  "Very small…not noticeable…very pretty?"

"I don't care about not being noticed." Said Wanda.  "I just know that you would enjoy it."

"Yes." Said St. John.  "Yes I would."

"That's not what I meant." Said Wanda.  "I meant…I'm not interested in having this plane go down simply because you wanted a lightshow."

"It won't go down!" said St. John.  "I have PERFECT control!"

"You can't have perfect control over something that is naturally chaotic." Said Wanda just to challenge what St. John said.

"Well, I do." Said St. John.  "I can prove it!"

"You can, can you?" asked Wanda with a raised eyebrow.  "All right then… make the fire on the top of the candle on YOUR left a perfect cube.  Nothing excess flying around or anything.  It must be a PERFECT cube.  And…increase the temperature so that it's blue."

"Is THAT all?" St. John said with a cocky wave of his hand and a laugh.  "I thought you wanted me to do something HARD."

"Fine." Said Wanda.  "Do it to EVERY candle in this room.  At the same time.  And instead of a cube, make it a skull."

"With my EYES CLOSED!" said St. John.  

"Then do it!" said Wanda.  "And since you said it, do it with your eyes closed!"

"OKAY!!" St. John said with a maniacal little laugh.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Kurt, your parents were really nice." Said Kitty as the Blue Team exited Kurt's house.

"Yeah!" said Kurt.

"Wait, what about your image inducer?" said Evan.  "In case you haven't noticed, you're still blue."

"Oh right!" said Kurt, looking at his hands.  "I'll be right back.  This should only take a second."  Then Kurt went back into the house and after the sound of a rummage for a minute or two, there was the sound of loud Germanic swearing.  Of course, they didn't know it was swearing but they decided to go in and investigate just in case.

"My dad didn't pay attention to wear he plunked the photo albums down!" Kurt said immediately to the Blue Team since he was on his way out to tell them anyway.  He held up his smashed image inducer.  "And look at this!"

"Oh man!" said Lance, slapping his forehead.

"I can't go out like this!" Kurt exclaimed.

Then Kurt's parents said something in German and ran into the other room.  They returned a moment later with a hooded trench coat, much like the one he wore in the first episode.

"This will have to do for now…" said Kurt sadly.

"Come on, we've wasted enough time as it is!" said Lance.

"We didn't WASTE time if Kurt was spending some quality time with his parents that he hardly ever gets to see!" said Kitty.

They all stood there in silence.

"All right, let's go." Said Evan.


	8. The Third Checkpoint!

MEANWHILE!!!

"YAY!!!" cheered the Green Team.  "This is the first time we have been first to arrive!"

"Despite the fact that we crashed into a tree and nearly killed Remy." Said Rogue.

"Welcome, Green Team!" said Angel since he was there to greet them.  "I'm obviously the person at the Checkpoint.  This checkpoint is different from the ones you have been to so far.  We're going to have to wait for the others to arrive."

"So we finally are first but we don't get any advantage?!" Pietro demanded.

"You get a Hotel Suite and a feast tonight and the other teams don't." said Angel.  Just as the Green Team was celebrating, the Blue Team teleported in.

"They should NOT be able to do that!!" yelled Pietro.

"Congratulations on being SECOND!!" Angel said.

"Kurt, this is all your fault!" yelled Lance.  "Because of you, we're in second place!"

"Because of ME we're here!" said Kurt as he took the hood off.

"Oh Kurt, Professor X heard about what happened to your image inducer…" said Angel, pulling another one out from behind his back.  "So he sent a new one.  He says that this one is kind of defective though…and he's working on a new one."

"Thank!" said Kurt happily, turning it on.  "There doesn't seem to be any problem to me…"

"Well anyway!" said Angel.  "I was just explaining to the Green Team here!  They get a feast and a Hotel Suite and you guys get a tent and some army rations while we wait for the last team to arrive."

MEANWHILE!!!

"This is unbelievable!" Scott said in an exasperated tone.  The four of them were squeezed on a bus, riding through Belgium.

"Saying it over and over isn't going to change anything." Said Wanda.

"But I still can't believe this!" Scott continued to rant.

"Hey!" said St. John.  "Hey, hey, hey!  This is supposed to be team unity!  Not team arguments!"

Someone would have slapped him if their arms weren't stuck by their sides.

"But why would you think turning all the candle flames into giant laughing flaming skulls that ignited many people would not cause some sort of horrible panic that would force the pilot to make an emergency landing?!" Scott yelled.  All the people on the bus tried not to look at the group of four.

"Wanda said that I couldn't do and I had to prove her wrong." Said St. John.

"If Wanda said you couldn't fly then would you?" Todd asked.

"Well, I KNOW I can't fly." Said St. John with a laugh.  "That would be fun though."

MEANWHILE!!!

"I GET THE BED!!!" yelled Pietro as he zipped through the open door past everyone and then leapt on the single bed that sat in the middle of their room.  "I get the bed!!  All to myself!!"

"Why is there only one bed?" groaned Rogue.

"This is good for our teamwork building skills!" said Jean.

"How?" asked Rogue.

"To show that we're a good enough team to sleep in the same bed!!" Jean answered.

Remy casually walked up to the bed and touched it so it was surrounded by little yellowish flame things.  "If I don't get the bed then no one does." He declared as Pietro immediately jumped off.  "Of course, you are welcome to join me, mes amours."

"Yeah right." Said Rogue.  "If I share a bed with ANYONE then I'll be waking up the next morning with their powers and that person won't be waking up the next morning."

"But we should all sleep together as a TEAM!" Jean continued.

"I want the bed all to myself!!" Pietro said, jumping up and down.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Angel could have at least give us more than one tent." Said Kitty as she climbed in.  "All right, you guys, you're all sleeping outside."

"What are you talking about?!" demanded Lance.  "I am so NOT sleeping outside!"

"Well you're not sleeping in here!" said Kitty.  "And I'm the lady!"

"Oh man, I'm a CITY kid!" said Evan.  "I don't sleep outside!"

Kurt shrugged happily since he didn't really care either way.  Knowing Kurt, he's probably slept outside all the time.

THAT NIGHT!!!

"Finally!" said St. John as he jumped around and frolicked around and broke many things.

"Please try and be quiet!" Angel whispered, rushing out of his little shack.  He was wearing his little angely nighty clothes with little deformed angels all over it.  "It's nearly 3:00 in the morning!"

"Give us our challenge!" said Scott enthusiastically.  "We just rode on a bus for seven hours and we're rearing to go!"

"You'll have to wait until morning." Said Angel.

"MORNING?!" yelled Todd.  "We're already really far behind!!"

"BE QUIET!!" Angel yelled but then he realized that he had to lower his voice back down to a whisper.  "Please be quiet.  This checkpoint is different.  All the teams are going to do it at the same time."

"Oh…" said the Red Team, looking at each other.

"So we rushed all the way here for no reason?" said Scott, sounding annoyed.

"Yes." Said Angel.  "Since you came in last, I'm supplying you with absolutely nothing foodwise and shelterwise.  Have a nice night and I'll see you at nine o'clock tomorrow morning!"

The Red Team paused and telepathically came to a decision.

"Angel…" said Scott.  "We've decided that we're just going to take your shack and leave you with nowhere to sleep…"

"You can't do that!" said Angel.

"Yes we can." Said Wanda as she zapped Angel and he was immediately down for the count since Angel is so weak and all he can do is fly.  The Red Team kicked him while he was down for a little while before laughing at his expense and running into his shack.  Angel was left there to cry in the fetal position.

THE NEXT MORNING!!!

"EVERYONE UP AND AT 'EM!!" screamed Angel the next morning.  He was completely unfazed about what had happened the night before!!  YAY!!

Everyone came out into the area where Angel had greeted them.  But, strangely enough, the entire Green Team was missing except for Rogue!  Golly!

"Where's the rest of your team?" asked Angel.

"They're um…sleeping." Said Rogue.  "I think I'm a restless sleeper and managed to touch every one of them at least once."

"Oh." Said Angel.  Everyone stood there in silence, not blinking or moving or saying anything until, one by one, Jean, Pietro and Remy all staggered down the stairs looking a bit disheveled and confused.  "Ah!" said Angel.  "At last, everyone is ready for the challenge!"

"You bet we are!" said Scott.

Angel paused and cleared his throat, a bit irritated by the interruption.  "So anyway, like I was saying," he continued.  "This challenge is really just a small, easy, simple questionnaire that will eventually lead to something else that is much bigger and more important."

"Oh no!" said Todd.  "Don't tell me we have to know about our team again!"

"Not really." Said Angel.  "I want the teams to mutually come up with who they consider their leader, who they consider to be the useful and who they consider to be the one who never really does anything.  And then of course, whoever is leftover.  Leaders in the blue circle, useful people in the green circle, people along for the ride in the pink circle and all of the leftover people in the red circle."

"Well…OBVIOUSLY I'm the leader." Said Scott to his team.

"Yeah right Scott." Said St. John.  "I think Wanda's the leader."

"Yeah, Wanda's definitely the most powerful out of all of us!" said Todd.

"Power isn't want determines leaders!" said Scott.  "It's heart!"

"It's power." Said Wanda threateningly.

"Oh fine…" said Scott since he feared Wanda's wrath.

"Well Scott, you seem to be the one who creates all the controversy on our team so we're going to put you in the group of people who contribute least to the team." Said St. John.  "Because I OBVIOUSLY go in the most useful category!"

"Yeah, the way you made that wall a really long time ago in Spain!" Todd agreed.  "That was just…so awesome."

"What about me guys?!" demanded Scott.  "I have done SO much for this team!"

But they eventually bullied Scott into going over to the pink circle and Todd went over to the red circle.  St. John went to the green circle and Wanda went over to the blue.

The Blue Team was also having their share of arguments on who exactly was in which group.

"Well, I think we're ALL the leader on this team!" said Kitty.

"I don't care what you guys do, I'm going over to the most useful circle and there's nothing you can do to stop me." Said Kurt as he teleported over to the green circle and high fived St. John.

"Okay…" said Lance.  "I decree that I'm the leader or I'm going to shake the world violently!!"

"Okay!" said Kitty and Evan since their powers were really lame.  So Lance went over to the blue circle with Wanda.  Kitty and Evan were left to decide who was a leftover and who was a least contributor.  So they flipped a coin and Kitty ended up going to the red circle with the other leftovers like Todd and Evan went over to the pink circle with Scott.

The green team was having quite the similar problem…

"Guys…I belong in both the leader and the most useful." Said Pietro.  "Where should I go??  Come on guys!!  Tell me!"

"You know what?" said Rogue.  "No."

"HEY!!" yelled Pietro.

"You are by far the least useful AND the most annoying!!" Rogue said.

"What?!" demanded Pietro.  "I'm really fast!  I pedaled here!  Remy has done absolutely nothing!!"

"Then…then you're just really annoying then!" Rogue corrected herself.

"I think I'm the most useful." Said Jean as she flew around.

"I've been utilized more!!" yelled Pietro.

"Pietro, just go and stand on the pink circle before I touch you." Said Rogue.

"Like you could catch me!" said Pietro.  "I'm too fast!"

"I'll help her!" said Jean.  "For the team!"

"I'M part of the team too!!" Pietro whined.

"Which is why you should go and stand on the pink circle!" Rogue said.  So Pietro, whining and complaining, went to the pink circle with Scott and Evan.  Rogue went over to the blue leadership circle with Wanda and Lance because, you have to admit, she has shown BY FAR, the most leadership on the team.  Jean flew over to the green useful circle with Kurt and St. John.  Remy stood there alone since he hadn't really been paying attention so, after quickly counting up all the members on each circle, he finally concluded that the red circle was down a member and he should grace them with the presence of Gambit.

"All right." Said Angel as he started handing the teams new colorful uniforms for them to wear.  "You're all probably wondering why I have split you up into these groups and why I'm handing you new uniforms based on the color circle you are standing in.  Well…these are your new teams!"


	9. Onward to Italy!

No one really said anything for a moment or two.

"For what?" Kurt asked suddenly.

"For the race!" Angel answered.  "Okay, your next checkpoint is in Italy.  There are no advantages.  The race starts again right…NOW!!!"

Everyone stood there in a stupefied state.

"All right!!" said Pietro.  "Let's go!!"  Then he started running back and forth anxiously.  "Come on!!  I'm over my shock!!  Hurry up!!"

It was another few moments before everyone else got over THEIR shock.

"So uh…should we FLY there…TELEPORT there…or should we just BURN our way there?!" said St. John.

Kurt and Jean stared at him.

"I thought so." Said St. John as if Kurt and Jean had said, 'Oh, burn our way there.  Definitely.'

"Just as a hint," said Angel when he noticed that no one was really doing anything to get ahead.  "There are two different modes of transportation behind my loveshack.  Whoever gets there first gets the best one!  Two teams WON'T get a mode of transportation so I would hurry!"

No sooner he had said that but Pietro was gone and returned on a motorcycle.

"Come on!!" he yelled because his Pink Team of Evan and Scott wasn't going fast enough to suit him.  But is that something new?

The Green Team of Kurt, St. John and Jean didn't bother.  They decided to just fly to Italy.

So the Blue Team of Rogue, Wanda and Lance as well as the Red Team of Kitty, Remy and Todd all raced to the back of the loveshack to find three pairs of Roller blades.  The war over the Roller Blades was pretty intense until Remy accidentally blew them all up so it turned out that NO ONE got them!  By the time they had got back to the front of the loveshack, the Green Team and the Pink Team were already long gone.

"Well, at least we're going REASONABLY fast…" Pietro sighed.  Scott was driving the motorcycle and Evan was sitting behind him while Pietro jogged on the side.  Of course, both Scott and Evan were wearing all the necessary protective gear required to ride a motorcycle but Evan already knows the importance of protective gear considering he wears it ALL THE TIME just in case the situation arises where he needs them.

"How did you end up on the least useful team?" Scott asked Pietro.  "I mean, you're the one who got this motorcycle for us."

"My team said I was annoying." Said Pietro sadly.  "Can we go any faster?"

"What about you, Scott?" asked Evan.  "I thought for sure you would be in the leader group…"

"Yeah well…" said Scott but he wasn't about to explain the reasoning of his group because he didn't really understand it either.

"Guys, I could run faster than this BACKWARDS!" Pietro declared.  "On one foot!  With my eyes closed!"

"Look man, we know you're fast and all but you don't have to gloat!" Evan said to Pietro.  "I'd like to see you shoot spikes out of your own body!"

"No thanks, I'll stick with being fast." Said Pietro coolly.

"How about we just attach Pietro to the motorcycle and have him pull it for us so we'll get to Italy extra fast?" suggested Scott.

"Guys, I know I'm super fast and all but that doesn't mean that I have the strength to pull both you slow mos AND a motorcycle." Said Pietro.

"Man, I miss having Kurt on my team." Said Evan sadly.

"Hey, am I the only one who's just noticed that we're the Pink Team?" said Pietro suddenly, stopping dead and looking at what he was wearing.

"Hey!" said Scott.  "We are!"  He looked up just in time to miss crashing into a tree and killing both him and Evan.  "Come on!  And we're the only team without any girls on it either!"

MEANWHILE!!!

"We rule." Said St. John suddenly.

Jean and Kurt looked at him momentarily.

"You know what?" said Kurt.  "We do!  I mean, I could always teleport us anywhere we want to go and if I'm feeling lazy then Jean could fly us there!  Then, just for fun, you could burn something!"

"I think I'll do just that!" said St. John, reaching for his pocket.  He noted his pocket was empty.  So he checked his other pocket.  That pocket was empty as well.  Then he checked his special lighter holder that he made sure to have specially made on his green uniform only to discover that that was empty too!!  "All right…where's my lighter?"

"Where was the last time you saw it?" Jean asked.  (they were flying just in case you didn't know)

"Well, I took it away from Scott and…" said St. John but then he gasped.  "It was Scott!!  He STOLE it!!  If he was here right now then I'd BURN him!!"

"First you'd get your lighter and THEN you'd burn him." Kurt corrected.

"There will be no burning of Scott at ANY time!" said Jean knavishly.

"I wasn't serious." Said Kurt.

"There will be no talking about burning of Scott either!" Jean continued.

"Come on, I'm PYRO." Said St. John.  "All I talk about is burning stuff.  Cause it's fun.  It's what I do.  Speaking of which, I need a lighter or else I won't be quite as useful on this little useful team we have going here."

"Why were you voted as the most useful on your team?" asked Kurt.  "You're pretty useless without your lighter."

"I know." Said St. John, hanging his head low.

"Well…" said Jean.  "We're still in Germany so let's stop at a pleasant little store and we can buy you a new one."

"NO!!" yelled St. John.  "I want MY lighter!!  We're turning around and ambushing Scott and FORCING him to return my lighter to me!!"

"But the race!" said Jean.

"I'll be right back." Said Kurt as he teleported.  Just like he said, he was right back with St. John's lighter in hand.

"Thanks!" said St. John.  "I feel as though I can call you 'mate'."

"Uh…thanks!" said Kurt.  "And I feel as though I can call you 'mein Freund'."

"Oh." Said St. John.  "Okay."

"What about me?" asked Jean.

"Well, you're not foreign." Said St. John and Kurt almost at the exact same time with their varying accents.

"So?" said Jean.  "Since I'm the designated American, I can call you both 'friend'."

"Um…no." said Kurt.  "That would ruin it."

MEANWHILE!!!

"Danke!" Kitty called to Kurt's pleasant German foster parents as they drove off in their crazy German car.  "I'm so glad that Kurt introduced me to his family and they were nice enough to let us borrow their car!"

"Yeah." Said Remy.

"I think they were just glad that blue boy had some friends that were just like him so they were willing to do whatever it took to make us like him." Todd intervened.  " Hey, I bet they were glad that he had some friends at all.  I highly doubt he's the popular one in the village."

There was a pause.

"Yeah." Said Remy.

"Are you like French?" Kitty asked, doing elaborate hand motions and speaking in a voice that was about two octaves higher than her regular voice.

"Let's just say I am." Said Remy as he stared at the road since he was the one driving and all.

"That's so cool!" sighed Kitty.  "I love the French language!  It's like, the language of love!"

Remy didn't say anything for a minute.  "Yeah." He said finally.

"Are you one of those silent loner types?" Kitty asked.

"Yes." Said Remy.  "So you should sit in the back with that kid that resembles a frog."

Kitty looked back at Todd who just so happened to be catching a fly with his tongue at that very moment.  "Ew, Todd?" Kitty said, turning back.  "Like, I would never even go near him!  Do you think you could like, say something in French?  I always liked the sound of French!  Oh, I already said that!"

"Uh…" said Remy.

"Please?" Kitty begged.

"Hola." Said Remy.

"That was Spanish!" Kitty said, putting her hands on her hips.

"I mix up my languages sometimes." Said Remy.

"You speak Spanish too?" Kitty asked, her eyes sparkling.

"No." Remy answered.

"Just say one quick thing in French!" Kitty pleaded.

Remy sighed.  "Bonjour." He said.

"I LOVE the French language!" Kitty exclaimed.

MEANWHILE!!!

The Blue Team, which consisted of Rogue, Wanda and Lance, were still standing outside of Angel's loveshack.

"I don't care about this race." Said Wanda suddenly.  "Can we just stop and go home or something?"

"No way!" yelled Lance as the world started shaking.  "There's no way I'm going to lose this race to anyone!"

"Yeah, I don't want to be kicked out of the X-Men." Said Rogue.

"I'm not really officially apart of any group." Said Wanda.

"Since when is this entirely about you anyway?" demanded Lance.

"Since NOW." Said Wanda.

"Could you guys at least walk away from my loveshack so I can leave?" Angel asked, coming out of nowhere.

"How do you plan on leaving?" asked Rogue.

"Flying of course!" Angel replied, spreading his wings out as far as they would go and chuckling warmly.

The Blue Team exchanged evil glances and then they all ambushed Angel and Rogue touched him!!  MWA HA HA HA!!  Then Rogue sprouted two angel wings!!

"Aw man!" said Rogue.  "This is deformed!"

Then Wanda and Lance each grabbed a hold of Rogue's hands and she took off.  Luckily, she was still a little fast because she had zapped Pietro that morning so they were going at a pretty good rate!!

MEANWHILE!!!

The Pink Team was all standing on the side of the road with their thumbs up.  Obviously, they were hitchhiking.  Now they're randomly going to talk about what happened so you're not left in the dark.

"I can't believe Kurt sabotaged us like that!" Scott said, raging about.

"It's not that he sabotaged us." Said Evan.  "He kind of just appeared out of nowhere on the motorcycle and then disappeared and you were so distracted that you ran off the road and ruined our motorcycle."

"It's a good thing you were both wearing your protective gear." Said Pietro.

"Why did he even do that?" Scott wondered.

"He took a lighter out of your pocket." Evan said.

They paused.

"Kurt smokes?" Pietro said suddenly.

"NO!!" Scott yelled as if such a comment offended him.  "I refuse to believe a thing like that!!  Kurt should know better!"

"Yeah." Said Evan.  "He SHOULD know better."

Then they all paused once again, waiting for another car to come driving down the road.

"Don't think that just because we're on the same team that we're buddy-buddy and that I'm going to work with you nicely, Daniels." Said Pietro.

"Ah, so I see our rivalry is randomly back on again, Pietro!" said Evan.

"And I also have something against you, Summers, just because you're not as fast as I am!" Pietro said to Scott.

"Well I have something against you, Maximoff, because you're on the Brotherhood and are my sworn enemy!" Scott said back.

"I never really liked YOU Scott." Said Evan, rolling up his sleeves.

"Let's take it outside, Evan." Said Scott, grabbing the rim of his sunglasses.

There was yet ANOTHER awkward silence.

"Let's just let bygones be bygones now that that's out of our system." Said Scott suddenly just as a car stopped for them.

MEANWHILE!!!

The Green Team landed discretely in an alleyway in Italy.

"Well, now that we're in Italy, we have to find the checkpoint." Said Jean.

"Aw man!" said Kurt as he started pounding on his image inducer and faded in and out from blue Kurt to peach Kurt.  "My image inducer is on the fritz!"

"Not now!" said Jean.  "We're in first!"

"It's okay, mate!" said St. John.  "Just put on the trench coat that you were carrying with you just in case a situation like this arose and if anyone tries to give you any grief then I'll burn them with the lighter you retrieved for me!"

"Thanks, mein Freund!" said Kurt as he applied his trench coat and the team walked out of the alleyway.

"Look guys, I hope you don't go forming a secret club without me." Said Jean.  "We're a team and we have to act that way!"

"No girls allowed!!" yelled St. John.

"What?!" demanded Jean.  "What did I JUST say?"

"What are you talking about?" St. John said, looking around.  "Did someone say something offensive?  I have half a mind to just burn everything in this town to the ground!  And I can, too!  Don't think I can't!!"

MEANWHILE!!!

"Are we almost there?" Todd asked from the backseat.

"I hope not." Said Kitty, gazing lovingly in Remy's direction.

"Oi." Said Remy, rolling his eyes.

"Can we stop and get something to eat?" Todd asked as they passed by a chain of fast food joints.

"No way!" yelled Kitty.  "We have a race to win!"

"You didn't care about the race a minute ago." Remy pointed out.

Kitty sighed dreamily.  "How do you say my name in French?"

Remy looked like he was trying to keep himself from touching Kitty and blowing her up…which is kind of funny because Remy's usually the mellow type.  Kitty was definitely not one of those lucky ladies who had the fortune of being called 'chéri'.  "'Kitty' doesn't translate into French but 'chat' is 'cat'." He answered.

"Oh…" said Kitty happily.  "That's so nice…"

Remy decided to put the pedal to the metal and drive a little OVER the speed limit.

"Hey, what are you trying to do?!" Todd demanded.  "Kill us all?!"

"Pardonnez-moi, mon ami." Said Remy but he regretted it a second later.

"Say some more stuff in French!" Kitty exclaimed.

"I'd rather not." Remy answered.

"Why?" Kitty asked sadly.  "French is the language of love!"

"Like that's not the first time I've heard that." Remy said and then he suddenly became OH SO interested in driving and simply could not speak to anyone anymore, ESPECIALLY not in French.

MEANWHILE!!!

"This is so bad." Said Rogue.

"This is definitely bad." Wanda agreed.

"I hate my life." Rogue continued.

"I hate my life too." Wanda said.

"Nothing ever goes my way." Rogue sighed.

"Wow…me too." Said Wanda, turning around and looking at Rogue.

"Girls, could you help me out a little by showing some leg?" Lance asked.  He had his thumb up and was hitchhiking while Rogue and Wanda just sat back and watched him.  "No one's gonna stop for ME."

Wanda and Rogue looked at each other and sighed.  They finally got up and put their thumbs up as well.  Within a few minutes, a car stopped for them.

"Chéri?" came the voice of Remy from inside the car.

"Remy?" Rogue said with a raised eyebrow.

"Say some more French!" said Kitty.

"Why'd YOU stop for us?!" Lance demanded.

"Because I'm a good Samaritan." Remy replied.  "Get in.  We'll all go to Italy together."

The Blue Team looked at each other and shrugged and then got in.  Lance and Wanda squeezed in the back with Todd, and Rogue sat in the middle in the front seat much to Kitty's dismay.  Then Remy started driving again and maybe even whistling too because now he had his chéri in the car.

"So…this is Kurt's parents' car!" said Kitty because she hates silence.  A few, 'Oh's and 'Is that so?'s were her reply but the conversation was pretty much killed after that.

So, after driving along for a little while longer, they spotted some more hitchhikers.

"We don't have enough room to fit anyone else." Said Rogue when she noticed that Remy was slowing down.

"Nonsense." Said Remy as he stopped the car in front of the Pink Team, Scott, Evan and Pietro.

"What a small world!" said Lance.

"Why'd you stop for us?" asked Evan.

"Because I'm a good Samaritan." Said Remy.  "Everyone get in."  Then they had four people in the front and four people in the back so that meant that Scott and Evan weren't wearing any seatbelts!!

"What about you, Pietro?" said Todd.  "This car not good enough for you?"

"Actually…YEAH." Said Pietro, crossing his arms.  "I'll run thanks."

MEANWHILE!!!

"Sapete dove ci è un punto di controllo?" Kurt asked some random Italian people.  The people sadly shook their heads as if they were dishonoring Kurt because they didn't know.  Kurt turned around and shrugged at Jean and St. John.

"Doesn't ANYONE know where a checkpoint is?!" St. John demanded.

"I do." Said a voice from behind them.  They turned around to see Samuel Guthrie AKA CANNONBALL!!!!

"Where?" asked Jean.

"You must first answer my questions three for the clue." Said Sam.

"All right…" said Jean.  "What are they?"

"What is your name?" started Sam.

"Kurt Wagner, Jean Grey and St. John Allerdyce." Said St. John proudly.  "You two remember that.  ALLERDYCE."

"Good." asked Sam.  "What is your quest?"

The group huddled up.  "To win the race, right?" said St. John.

"No!" said Jean. "Remember what the Professor said?  To build teamwork skills!"

"Good catch!" said Kurt.

"Our quest is to build teamwork skills!" said Jean to Sam.

"Good, now for the toughy." asked Sam.  "What is your favorite color?"

"Well…" said Kurt.  "Do we all have different favorite colors?"

"Let's say green to prove how our teamwork skills have been working since we're the green team!" said Jean.

"Yeah!!" said St. John.  "Our favorite color is green!"

"Very good!" said Sam.  "I will now tell you were the checkpoint is."

Then he paused.

"Well?" asked Kurt.

"It's in Palazzo Italiano Di Divertimento Del Ristorante Del Mario." Said Sam.

"And…where is that?" asked Kurt.

"Hey, my job is to tell you where it is, not how to get there!" said Sam defensively.

"Fine…" said Jean as they watched Sam walk away.

"Now we have to search around Italy for the Palazzo Italian Mario!" whined St. John.

MEANWHILE!!!

"I'm SO hungry!!" Todd said, grabbing Remy and shaking him around violently.  "I need food!"

"Très bien." Sighed Remy, pulling the car over to a small restaurant called Palazzo Italiano Di Divertimento Del Ristorante Del Mario.

Pietro came to a halt.  "What are you slow mos doing?!" he demanded.

"Todd NEEDS something to eat." Said Lance.

"What can I say?" said Todd.  "When I'm hungry, I'm hungry."

"RRRRGH!!" yelled Pietro, running around in circles at super speed.  "I DON'T WANNA COME IN LAST!!!"

"We might as well." Said Kitty.  "I mean…I'm kinda hungry too…" she paused nervously.  "Remy?  Would you mind escorting me into the restaurant?"

"Um…I don't like Italian." Said Remy, taking a step back.

"You better not say that while we're in Italy." Said Rogue.

Just then, Logan walked out of the restaurant and looked around.  "Well whaddya know?" he said, crossing his arms.  "Three teams already here."

"Wait…THIS is the checkpoint?!" said Scott.  

"Might as well cut right to the chase." Said Logan.  "I only need two representatives from each team for this challenge."


	10. The Fourth Checkpoint!

"Me and Remy!" Kitty immediately volunteered as she latched onto Remy.  Remy sighed long and hard.

"And Todd is the left over?" asked Logan.  The Red Team nodded.

"Why is it always me?" asked Todd.  "First I'm the leftover on my OLD team and now I'm the leftover of THIS team…"

"I am SO there!" said Lance excitedly as the world shook accidentally.  Sometimes when he gets excited, that just happens. 

"I'm just going to sit this one out." Said Rogue with a wave of her hand.  "To be honest with myself, I'm pretty useless unless I have someone to steal powers from and I've been doing WAY too much of that lately."

"Whatever." Said Wanda as she grabbed Lance's hand and held it high.  "We will be entering your challenge."

"And Rogue is not?" asked Logan, eyeing Rogue.

"Right." Said Rogue.

"And what about you, The Pink Team?" Logan asked, averting his eyes to the remaining all-male team clad entirely in bright pink.

"I'm there!" said Pietro with a raise of his hand before Scott or Evan could even realize that there was a question asked.

"I'll go with you!" said Evan.

"No way, Daniels." Said Pietro.  "You'll just slow me down."

"Aw man!" said Evan as if Pietro were the leader and what he said went.

"He's right, Evan." Said Scott.  "I'll go!"

"There we go." Said Logan as he looked as though he was going to launch into an extremely long explanation of stuff but all of a sudden, the Green Team teleported in.

"I hope we didn't miss anything!!" said Jean eagerly.

"Well, you need to pick two people in your team." Logan explained.

"Nothing against you, mein Freund, but Jean and I certainly are the most able when it comes to challenges!" said Kurt truthfully to St. John.

"It's okay!" said St. John even though he was obviously crying inside.

"Okay…so St. John stays behind?" Logan asked.  The Green Team nodded.  "All right, all of you groups of two follow me into the other room.  The rest of you, just stay here."

Logan then led the eight people down the stairs to a basement with four treadmills of different colors.  Can you guess the colors?  Red, blue, pink and green.

"You can probably guess what you'll be doing." Said Logan.  "Run as fast as you can and if you get tired, switch off with your partner.  I'll be back later."  Then Logan left.

"This is a really lame challenge." Said Scott as he turned around to see that Pietro was already on the pink treadmill.

"Don't bother thinking that you're going to get a turn, Summers!" he laughed, feeling way to proud of himself.  "I'll have this won in no time!"

Scott wasn't about to argue as he took the seat next to the treadmill.

"Aw man…" said Kitty.  "Remy, could you like…start or something?"

"I don't know, Kitty." Said Remy.  "I've had an awful pain in my ankle lately and I don't think I can run for very long at all…"

"Please?" Kitty asked.

"S'il vous plait mon ami?" Remy said.

"Oh…" said Kitty.  "I'll start running!"

"I DON'T run." Said Wanda to Lance.

"Well I shake the world!" said Lance as if that had any relevance to anything.

"Well I don't run." Wanda said threateningly.

"Whatever." Said Lance as he got on the blue treadmill.

"All right, Kurt." Said Jean.  "Do you want to start or should I?"

"Well…that's the thing." Said Kurt.  "It's really awkward for me to run unless I'm on all fours but the treadmill is too small and my feet would go right off the end of it.  Silly, isn't it?"

"Oh, that's too bad." Said Jean.  "I'LL do the running!"

MEANWHILE!!!

Logan climbed the stairs and walked outside the restaurant where Todd, Rogue, Evan and St. John were waiting ever so patiently.  "All right you four, I'll show you YOUR task." He said.

"What, we have to do something to?" said Rogue.

"Yes." Said Logan.  "Follow me."

The four remaining team members followed Logan through the restaurant and in the back where there was this isolated little dome building type thing just sitting there beckoning someone to come in.

"Welcome to La Stanza Di Pericolo." Said Logan.

"And for those of us who DON'T speak Italian?" said St. John.

"The Danger Room." Logan translated.

"In Italy?" said Evan with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes." Said Logan.  "It's an Italian Danger Room."

"Am I supposed to know what a Danger Room is?" said St. John.

"Yes." Said Logan.  "But, if you don't, it's simply a dangerous room used for training.  Mainly, there are four colored flags in there and you must go in and find the one that matches your team color.  Once you do, bring the flag to me and I will tell you where to go after that."

"Is THAT all?" St. John said.

"Obviously, you've never been in the Danger Room." Said Evan.

"Obviously not." Said Logan as he pushed Evan, St. John, Rogue and Todd through the door and into an utterly dark room.

Suddenly, the lights flashed on and everyone looked around.

"You may begin." Said Logan's voice over a loudspeaker as the four competitors tore off in different directions immediately.

MEANWHILE!!

"So how are we supposed to know when to stop running?" asked Scott as he watched Pietro, Lance, Kitty and Jean run like there was no tomorrow.

Pietro suddenly stopped running.  "You're not running, Summers." He said.  "You only wish you were so that you could be up to par with me.  Well, you can't!  I'm too fast!"

"Fine." Sighed Scott as Pietro started running again.  "How are the running people supposed to know when to stop running?"

"Do we even know WHY we're running?" asked Remy as he watched Kitty.  

"Well, obviously this is just like a normal race only cheaper." Said Kurt.  "We probably have to run for a certain distance and when we reach that distance, we're done."

Pietro stopped running again.

"Well, I hate to break it to you but I've already run three hundred miles." He said.  "So if that's the case then you guys are going to be running for an awfully long time."

"This…doesn't…seem…very fair…" panted Jean as she glanced down at the little mechanical device on her treadmill to see that she had run only 0.75 miles.

"Well, was it or was it not YOU that voted me as the least useful on our team?" said Pietro with a grin.  Then he pretended to yawn.  "I could go to sleep for the night and wake up the next morning to see that I would still be leaps and bounds ahead of all you slow mos."

Scott secretly did a little jig on the inside.  He would never do such a thing on the OUTSIDE but unless someone could read his mind, no one saw his little jig.

_"I saw that Scott."_ Came the voice of Professor Xavier inside Scott's head.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Why do the lights keep dimming like that?" asked Todd as the lights in the room suddenly shone brighter.

Rogue walked over to him.  "I don't know but if the lights go out before everything starts attacking us then we are screwed."

Just as she said that, the giant machine in the middle suddenly came to life.  From every free spot there sprouted a long mechanical arm with either something sharp at the end, something with lasers or something with projectiles.

Everything pointy gave off a little twinkle just to show just HOW sharp they were before giving an all out attack on Rogue and Todd.

"ARGH!!" they both yelled because neither of them had any way of attacking.  All they could do was run or, in Todd's case, hop away.

Meanwhile, Evan and St. John were having similar problems.

"You know…" said St. John as he narrowly dodged a barrage of buzz saw blades.  "Fire is the best weapon against everything EXCEPT machines."

"I'm pretty useless too!" Evan yelled as he shot a spike at the machine but it merely bounced off as if it were made of plastic.

Suddenly the lights went out completely.  The only light in the room was the flame that was now encompassing St. John.

"Yeah…" he said.  "I really DO have the best power."

And with that, he ran off.

MEANWHILE!!

"Wait!!" Pietro yelled as he went over to the other groups who had dismounted their treadmills.  "You can't stop running!"

"Why bother?" said Kitty as she wiped her face with her shirt.  

"Like you JUST said, you've run over a thousand miles on that treadmill!" said Lance.  "If the point is to see who can run a certain distance, you've already got that won but if we have to run over a thousand miles, I'd rather drop out now."

"But…but…" stuttered Pietro.

"Don't worry, Pietro." Said Scott.  "If Logan comes back in to see who ran the farthest, we'll have won this one hands down."

MEANWHILE!!

"I FOUND MY FLAG!!" St. John announced suddenly.  He was easy to find because the fire he was creating was the only light in the whole place.  They saw his glowing figure run over to the door and leave, leaving them ALL in complete darkness.

"I found my flag!" St. John said as he presented Logan with a red flag.

"No." said Logan.  "You found A flag."

"Yes, that's right." Said St. John.  "Red for the Red Team…wait…" 

"That's right…" said Logan.  "Finish the sentence."

"I'm on the Green Team now." St. John sighed.

"Very good." Said Logan.  "Now get back in there and find the correct flag."

St. John hung his head low and solemnly walked back in the danger room.  He took the red flag and wedged it into some crack just to give the Red Team some EXTRA difficulty for having raised his hopes like that.

Meanwhile Rogue, Todd and Evan were just hiding in a corner.  They didn't want to be killed and this race just wasn't worth braving the Danger Room in the dark.

It didn't take St. John very long to find the blue flag because he had his very own build in candle.  After pausing for a moment and staring at the flag, he said some kind of crazy Australian curse and tossed it on the ground and stomped in it a few times while mumbling to himself.  Then he journeyed off to find his own GREEN flag only to stumble across a pink flag.  He, feeling unstable and evil, decided that this pink flag offended him because it wasn't green so he set it aflame.

Logan was observing the darkness of the Italian Danger Room and figured that this was getting really pointless so he went back into the restaurant and went into the basement where everyone was just sitting around.

"We win!!" Pietro said, leaping to his feet.

"What are you guys all doing?" Logan demanded.

"We realized that it was pointless to go up against Pietro in a foot race…" started Lance.

"Whoever said this was a race?" Logan said.  "When you run on this treadmill, it powers the lights in the Danger Room where your other teammates are searching for a flag of their color.  I must say that it's very difficult to find a flag in the dark while things are attacking you."

"Why didn't you tell us before?!" yelled Jean, jumping on her treadmill and starting running.  The appointed runners on each team did the same thing.

"Because that was the point of the challenge." Logan said, rolling his eyes as he left the basement and went back into the Italian Danger Room.

"Hey, the lights are back on!!" Evan exclaimed.

"Aww…" sniffed St. John because he wanted to be the one emitting the only source of light.  But then he gasped and picked up a green flag.  "I found our flag!  Look!  I found our flag!"  He zoomed over to Logan as if he were Pietro and presented the flag to him.  "Do I win?"

"Well…yes." Said Logan, taking the flag.  "You can go into the basement of the restaurant and tell your teammates to come to me."

"All right!" cheered St. John as he ran out of the room and entered the restaurant.

"Do we still have to find our flag?" asked Todd.

"Yes, of course you do!" said Logan.

Meanwhile, St. John reached the basement.

"Guess what?!" he yelled.  "I FOUND THE FLAG!!!"

Everyone jumped in surprise at the sudden entry of St. John.

"And…" said Kurt slowly.

"So let's go, mate!" he continued.  Then he looked at Jean who was still running on the treadmill.  "You can come too…IF YOU MUST."

Then the Green Team ran out of the basement and back to the Danger Room to get the location from Logan of their next checkpoint AND their special advantage!!

"The final checkpoint is in England." Said Logan.

"FINAL?!" yelled St. John.  "You mean it's almost over?!"

"Hey, I found our flag!" said Rogue as she ran over to Logan with the blue flag in her hand.

"Yes…so you have." Said Logan.  "You can go get the rest of your team and bring them here."  Then Rogue ran out of the room and Logan turned back to the Green Team.  "Here's some boat tickets.  They leave from France at the time specified on your ticket.  Here are your train tickets to get to France.  Your train leaves in about a half an hour so I would hurry and get to the station that specified on the ticket if I were you."

You didn't have to tell the Green Team twice!  They were teleported out of there in seconds.  LESS than seconds!!

Then the Blue Team came up and Logan explained pretty much the same thing to them except their train left in one hour instead of a half an hour.  So then the Blue Team dashed out of the restaurant on their way to the train station.

Logan decided that he would give ONE more clue to the treadmill people as he observed the fact that it was super dim in the Danger Room now that two treadmills weren't in use.  So he went into the basement where Kitty and Pietro were running and Scott and Remy were watching.

"It would behoove you two to run as well." Said Logan.  "Now that two treadmills aren't going, there's not much light in the Danger room and it will probably be more difficult to find the flags."

"Do we have to?" asked Remy.

"Um…no, I suppose you don't HAVE to…" Logan said slowly.  "You really don't have to run at all but it would make it easier for your team."

"Well, I'M going to run!" said Scott as he got on the Green treadmill.

Remy looked like he was truly debating with himself on whether to run or not on the treadmill.  "I guess I'll WALK." He said finally turning the blue treadmill on a super slow speed.

AN HOUR LATER!!!

Logan, by this time, was reading a magazine, trying to keep himself from jumping into the action.

"Oh, HERE it is!" said Todd as he tried to pull the red flag that was wedged into the crack out of the wall.  "Yeah, THAT'S real fair!  How was I supposed to find this easily?!"

"Well…here, just take these tickets to your team and just go." Said Logan.  Todd hopped down into the basement to where the running people all were… VERY exhausted.

"Guess what I got!" he declared.

"That like took long enough!" Kitty yelled angrily, jumping off her treadmill.

"We gotta go now." Said Todd, looking at the train ticket.  "Our train leaves in about an hour."  And with that, the Red Team was out the door!

This left the Pink Team behind.

"I hate being in last place!!" whined Pietro.  "It makes me anxious!!"

"Just be quiet and keep running!" Scott commanded.

TWO HOURS LATER!!!

"You know what?!" Evan said, stomping over to Logan.  "I swear, there is NO pink flag in there!!  The only thing that I found that even slightly resembles a flag is this charred blackened remains of one!"

Logan observed the charred flag.  "I think this is it…" he said.  "Even if it isn't, we'll just say it is because I have better things to do than stand around watching you look for a flag."

"Why is our flag burnt?!" demanded Evan.

"I don't know." Said Logan, handing a set of tickets to Evan.  "Well…you missed your train.  But if you hurry and get to France some other way then maybe there's a chance you'll catch your boat to England."


	11. Onward to England!

MEANWHILE!!!

Since time is really obscure in the world of the X-Men, we'll just say that the Green Team is already boarding their boat.

"We've got this locked, mein Freund!" said Kurt, high fiving St. John.

"You said it, mate!" St. John agreed.

"Don't think I don't notice that you two are trying to exclude me on purpose!" said Jean.

"Who said that?" St. John said, looking around.

"Said what?" asked Kurt.  "I didn't hear anything."

"Me neither!" said St. John as he and Kurt did a secret handshake that they made up on the train ride.

Jean tried to pretend as though she didn't care as she turned away from them and walked off looking all offended as Kurt and St. John laughed at her behind her back.  But it's not like they were trying to be discrete or anything because they were chuckling EVER so warmly especially St. John…we all know HIS laugh.

MEANWHILE!!!

"I wish we could have gotten on THAT boat." Said Rogue as she looked at her ticket and then up at St. John and Kurt waving at them from the boat.  "But we don't leave for another forty-five minutes."

"How irritating." Said Wanda.  "I hate my life and my father and my brother."

"I hate your brother too." Said Rogue.  "He's REALLY annoying."

"I hated him before you did!" said Lance.

"You're both wrong!" said Wanda angrily.  "I hated him LONG before any of you even knew who he was!"

"Well, I hated him ever since this race started." Said Rogue with a sigh.

"I hated him ever since he joined the Brotherhood, unjoined the Brotherhood and then REJOINED the Brotherhood!" Lance said, topping Rogue.

"I've hated him ever since we had to share a womb!!" yelled Wanda.  But then she paused.  "Wait, no.  I liked him then.  I liked him until I was about… seven or so...that was around the time when my father locked me away and Pietro didn't do anything about it!!  Then I started hating them BOTH!!"

"Well, Wanda, you may have hated him the longest but your reason is the worst." Said Lance.  "Your father put you in a nuthouse and because little seven year old Pietro didn't do anything to help you, you hate him.  He betrayed our friendship and trust with no thought or concern many times and didn't even care about us!  That's why I hate him."

"He's just annoying." Said Rogue.  They continued to rant and rave about Pietro for forty-five more minutes until their boat came.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Wow!" said Kitty.  "Here we are in a train riding through France and there are so many French people around us talking in French!"

"Yeah." Said Remy.

"You can understand them, right?" said Kitty.

"Um…no." said Remy.  "No I can't."

"What?" said Kitty with a laugh.  "You're lying!"

"It's true." Said Remy.  "All I know is a few simple phrases."

"I don't believe you!" Kitty said.

"Believe what you want." Said Remy with a sigh.

Meanwhile, Todd was hopping around the train while singing his own theme song.

"T-O-A-D TOAD!!!" he bellowed.

"We're not with him." Said Kitty to the random people on the train who were giving odd glares.  "Oh!  You should tell them that we're not with him in French since they probably are all French."

"I wouldn't know what to say." Said Remy.  "I'm not sure how that would translate…I hardly know any French at all…the only thing I actually know is Bonjour and all the other French that I've spoken so far I've just made up."

"Stop lying!" Kitty said, sounding kind of annoyed.  "I heard that you were in France and you were speaking French the whole time!"

"What?" said Remy, unable to recall such an event that Kitty would potentially hear about.

MEANWHILE!!!

Pietro, Evan and Scott were making good time.  They had stolen a little red wagon from some small Italian child and now, with Scott and Evan crammed into it, Pietro pulled it as fast as he could run while carting two reasonably sized males.

Suddenly, Pietro stopped. 

"I'm getting really tired." He said as he wiped his forehead.  The sun was shining down brightly on the three of them.

"I didn't know you COULD get tired, Pietro." Said Evan.

"Be quiet, Daniels!" snapped Pietro.  "If it weren't for your slow flag-finding lack-of-skills, we'd be on the boat to England already!"  Then he paused.  "Besides, I'm super fast, not super strong.  Having to pull YOUR lazy butts around is harder than it looks!"

"Fine, Pietro." Said Scott.  "If you're THAT tired, I'LL pull you for a while."

"No thanks, Summers." Said Pietro smugly.  "Frankly, I wouldn't be able to stand going so slow.  Just let me rest and I'll be fine enough to pull you too slow mos sooner or later."

"Hopefully sooner." Sighed Evan.

"Don't make me leave you behind, Daniels!" said Pietro as he pulled a little yellow bottle out of his pocket and squirted some lotiony stuff in his hands.

"What is that?" asked Scott as he pointed to the lotion.

"Sunscreen." Said Pietro plainly as he rubbed some on his face.  "What?!  The sun's bright!  I burn easily!  REALLY easily!" 

"Yeah, I've noticed." Said Evan.  "Are you Albino or something?"

"What?!" demanded Pietro as if that offended him.  "Just because I have extremely fair skin and white hair does NOT make me an Albino!"

"Actually…it does." Said Scott.

"No it doesn't!!" yelled Pietro, throwing a temper tantrum.  Then he paused.  "Do I have any lotion on my face?"

MEANWHILE!!!

"All right…" said Kurt as they jumped off the boat and stepped into England where all the people have crazy accents.  "The name of the game is 'Find the Checkpoint and End This Stupid Race'!"

"Can't you use your telepathy to lock onto whoever's running the checkpoint are and then was can go and follow the special mutant brainwaves they're giving off or something?" asked St. John intelligently to Jean.  Jean crossed her arms and turned away.

"Why should I?" she said angrily.  "All you two have done is ignore me the entire time we have been a team!  If you really want to call it that."

"We're a team!" Kurt said.  "A really GOOD team!  I mean…we're in FIRST!!"

"No thanks to me!" Jean yelled.  "You haven't asked my opinion on anything or asked me to help or even acknowledged my existence."

"Just leave her alone, mate." Said St. John.  "If she's going to be like this, then we don't need her!" 

"How about we start over and be the GREEN TEAM from now on!" said Kurt, hoping that maybe he'd reach Jean.

"On one condition." Said Jean.

"And what's that?" asked Kurt.

"We have to start over and be the JEAN Team!" she answered.

Kurt and St. John looked at each other with raised eyebrows.  They really didn't want their team to be called the Jean Team but then again, who was going to know?  So they decided to just give her that and let her THINK that they were all enthusiastic about being the Jean Team when they secretly were just going to make fun of her even MORE behind her back.

MEANWHILE!!!

"And Pietro CLAIMED that my father said it was the best thing to do." Wanda sighed as the Blue Team rode the boat across to England.  "But, Pietro has proved to be a chronic liar and it's not like he cared about me ANYWAY so he just doesn't have any ground to stand on."  Rogue nodded and sighed.

"Are you two STILL bitching about Pietro?" Lance said, coming out of nowhere.

"Yes." They both answered.

"Well, yeah, Pietro's irritating but I can't say I've ever sat around wasting precious hours of my life complaining about how much I hate him." Lance said.

"I can." Said Wanda.  "I had a lot of free time in the asylum." She paused.  "Which, might I had, Pietro did ABSOLUTELY nothing to get me out of when he could have easily done so with his speed!"  With that, many things exploded and went haywire due to Wanda's ridiculous amount of power that usually comes out when she's angry.

"Whoa…I hate to sound like I'm defending Pietro…" said Lance slowly, observing Wanda's handy work.  "But…you really need to lay off him."

"So are you on HIS side?!" Wanda demanded, getting all in Lance's face.  Everything around started flying around crazier than ever.

"Um…no!" said Lance nervously.  "I hate Pietro too!"

"Good." Said Wanda as she backed off and everything around her calmed down until it eventually stopped moving.  "So anyway…"

MEANWHILE!!

"So our boat should be here pretty soon." Said Todd as he held up the three tickets.  "Man, this stinks.  I hope we're not in last!"

"We could be in first, mon…my friend." Said Remy as he caught himself before letting any careless French slip out.

"You were about to say something in French!" Kitty said.  "SAY IT!!"

"We're in France." Said Remy, reading to kill.  "Just listen to everyone around us."

"But I want to hear YOU say it." Said Kitty as she started blushing.  "Cause you sound really cool."

Remy wasn't about to deny the fact that he was a lady killer but he was getting sick of Kitty clinging to him so he only decided to ignore her previous comment.  Todd hopped around aimlessly and rather foolishly until suddenly, a little red wagon as well as the Pink Team came barreling out of nowhere and ran him over.

"I think this is the right place." Said Pietro, shielding his eyes from the sun.

"And with time to spare!" Scott announced triumphantly.

"Hey!" said Evan.  "It's the Red Team!"

"What are you doing here?" asked Todd.

"Waiting for the boat?" suggested Pietro as he hardly suppressed his urge to smack Todd for his stupidity.

"I thought we were farther ahead than that…" said Kitty.  

"Yeah!" said Todd.  "I SAW St. John burn your flag so I assumed you'd NEVER be here!"

"OH!!" said Evan as if he just realized something.  "St. John burned our flag!  It all comes together now!"

Pietro gave Evan a dope slap just because he knew he could get away easily.

"Would you look at that?" said Todd, glancing at his ticket and then at the boat that was pulling into the harbor.  "This is our boat!  Can't say the same for you though."

The Pink Team looked at their tickets and then at the boat and then at their watches that they all were equipped with.  Then they hung their heads low as Todd laughed at their expense and the Red Team boarded.

"Are we really going to sit back and watch that?!" Scott demanded as he watched a big mechanical arm move a bunch of huge wooden boxes onto the deck of the ship.  Evan and Pietro seemed to notice as well.  "Hey…you guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I think so Scott…" said Evan.  "But me and Pippi Longstocking?  I mean, what would the children look like?!"

Pietro AND Scott took that opportunity to give Evan a dope slap and then the three of them jumped inside a big wooden box that just so happened to be empty yet was about to be loaded onto the boat anyway.  The Pink Team could hardly suppress their childish laughter as they climbed out of the box and onto the deck of the ship.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Well…he should be around here somewhere…" said Jean who was using her powers to locate Jamie…AKA MULTIPLE!!!

It didn't take long for Jean to find him but on their way there, they came across one of those red-clad guards with the tall fuzzy hats and they felt that they simply HAD to make him laugh.  (What?  With Kurt AND St. John on the team?!)

"Tickle him!" said St. John.  "I bet no one's ever thought of THAT!"

"I can't touch him!" said Kurt.  "I don't have my image inducer on!"

"And that would affect it…how?" St. John asked.

"I am blue and have two fingers on each hand." Said Kurt.  "Not to mention I'm fuzzy."

"I think seeing that would make him stop standing so still!" said St. John.  "What do you think, Jean?  Do you think seeing a hand like Kurt's for the first time would cause even and English guard to flinch?"

"I don't think I want you guys to do this." Said Jean.  "Maybe you should just…um…make him move some other way."

"You know, I bet he's in shock right now because he just heard about us talking about your fuzziness." Said St. John, waving a hand in front of the guard's face.

"He probably gets crazy stories like that all the time." Kurt said.  Then they watched the Blue Team run by, back track and then slowly approach the guard.

"Hey…have you guys been trying to get him to move?" Lance asked.

"Yes." Said the Jean Team.

"Well…how about if we FORCE him to move in order to regain his balance!" Lance suggested as his eyes rolled back in his head and then the world started shaking.  The guard seemed unfazed and rocked around while standing straight as a board and eventually fell into a crack that Lance had created and tumbled to the center of the earth, still acting as though none of it was even happening.

"Nice going." Said Rogue, rolling her eyes.

"Oops." Said Lance.

The Jean Team and the Blue Team looked at each other and paused.  Then the Jean Team broke into a run and ran off but the Blue Team followed since they figured the Jean Team knew where they were going.

"They're following us!!" Kurt yelled as if it didn't look weird that he was galloping on all fours in a public area.

"They're trying to get to the checkpoint!" St. John yelled.  "WHY?!"

But then they crashed into someone and when they recovered and stood up, they saw FIVE LITTLE PEOPLE THAT ALL LOOKED REMARKABLY SIMILAR!!!  IT WAS JAMIE!!  AKA MULTIPLE!!  YAY!!

"Looks like we BOTH found him!" Lance said as if it weren't obvious to the world.

"Congratulations!" said Jamie as he gestured toward his multiple selves.  "As you can see, my four multiple selves are wearing different colors; pink, green, blue and red…"

"Why did _I_ have to wear pink?" whined the multiple in pink.

"Because you lost in rock, paper, scissors!  Remember?" said the multiple in green.

"So anyway…" said Jamie.  "We will give them twenty minutes to run off and when the timer goes off, you will need to go off and find them!"

"Twenty minutes?" Rogue said.  "Does that give the other two teams that aren't here yet an advantage?"

"Yes." Said Jamie.  "What's your point?"

"Never mind…" said Rogue.

"Okay, good!" said Jamie.  Then he turned to his clones and ushered for them to skidadle away.  

"What'll we do while we wait?" asked Kurt.

Jamie shrugged since he didn't really care.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Hey!!" said Kitty when she saw Scott, Pietro and Evan walk nonchalantly around the corner.  "What do you guys think you're doing?!"

"Hanging out." Said Evan as his two team members slapped him five.

"I am SO telling Remy and Todd!" she said as she stormed off.  "They'll show you!!"

"Um…what are they gonna do?" said Pietro.  "They can't catch me.  I'm too fast."

"Yes, as you have previously told us." Said Scott.  "Many times."

"Just making sure you remember so you don't mistake me for someone who's slow." Said Pietro, putting his hands up innocently.

"I would NEVER make that mistake." Said Scott as he rolled his eyes.  

"You better not." Said Pietro threateningly.

Suddenly, Remy and Todd came around the corner.

"Aw man!" Said Todd.  "The moment we pull ahead, you guys have to come and steal that."

"I have nine words for you." Said Remy.  He secretly wished he hadn't said that because nine words seems a bit ludicrous.  It was just that Kitty was making him unable to think straight.  "Get off the boat before I blow something up."

Then he waited as everyone counted to make sure he actually DID only use nine words and not ten or eight.

"We're in the middle of the ocean, Remy." Said Scott.  "I hope you don't expect us to actually jump off."

"Find some other way of getting off." Said Remy.

"Do you care that much about a stupid race that you would make us potentially jump off a boat to our watery grave?" asked Evan.

"No…I guess I don't." said Remy.

"WHAT?!" demanded Kitty.  "Aren't you going to, like, make them row a lifeboat to shore?"

"There's three of them and only one of me."

"What about us?!" Kitty yelled, gesturing to herself and Todd.

Remy looked at the two.  "Um…no." he said.

MEANWHILE!!!

"All right…" said Jamie, staring at his watch.  "In two minutes, you can start."

"May the best team win." Said Jean, going up to each individual member of the Blue Team and shaking their hands.  Then she looked at St. John and Kurt as if she was a disappointed mother and expected them to do the same.  They gave her a look of astonishment because she actually DID expect them to do the same but finally decided to choose their battles and shake the hands of the Blue Team who were equally astounded because of Jean's foolishness.

"Ready…" said Jamie.  "Set…GO!!"

Everyone was about to dash off to go and find the Jamie of their color but Wanda zapped each Jean Team member and then Rogue ran up and touched each of them in their state of discombobulation and then the Blue Team cackled at the unconscious Jean Team's expense and ran off to find their Blue Jamie.

"Um…okay." Said Jamie slowly.


	12. The Fifth Checkpoint!

"Blue Jamie…blue Jamie…" said Wanda as she looked around for the Jamie of the Blue variety.  "This would be a lot easier if I remembered what Jamie looked like."

"I vaguely know what he looks like." Said Rogue.  "But not that much."

"I don't know what he looks like at all." Said Lance.  "I didn't even look at him when we were getting the instructions explained to us.  I just stared at the floor for no reason!

"So should we just go up to every kid with blue on and ask him if he's Jamie?" asked Wanda.

"I guess so." Said Rogue as she turned around to see about forty children wearing blue running around happily.  "I wish we were on the pink team or something.  That way, it would be easier to pick out a male with that color on."

"If only." Said Lance longingly as he commenced in staring at the ground.

MEANWHILE!!!

"We are triumphant!!" said Todd, hopping up to Jamie.  (Don't ask how Todd knew Jamie was the checkpoint person.  Perhaps Kitty had pointed at him and said, 'Dear lord!  It's Jamie!  He must be the checkpoint person!!')

"I don't think so!" said Pietro as he ran past Todd and rested his arm on Jamie.

"Yeah!" said Scott.  "Pink Team all the way!"  The remaining members of the Red and Pink Teams stepped over the unconscious bodies of the Jean Team members and questioned Jamie on what their challenge would be.

"Well…" Jamie answered.  "Find my multiple self wearing the color of your team.  It's simple enough."

"Yeah…it is!" said Evan.

"Pietro, since you're SO fast, why don't you just run around until you find his multiple self wearing pink?" Scott said, intentionally sucking up to Pietro as the Red Team realized this and decided to run off to get a head start on finding the Red Wearing Multiple Jamie.

"I'm there!" said Pietro as he ran off.  Then he came back a second later.  "Wait…I need to find another one of YOU wearing pink?"

"That's right." Said Jamie with a nod.

"Okay." Said Pietro as he ran off again.

"Yawn." Said Evan and Scott as they lounged back.

"If this is how you build teamwork then I'm going to have to make you find the pink me THREE times!" said Jamie.

"That's not fair!" said Evan.

"Jamie…" Scott warned, getting 'that tone'.

"Fine…" said Jamie sadly, hanging his head low.

MEANWHILE!!!

"We have to search all around England to find ONE kid and our only clue is that he's wearing blue?" Rogue complained.  "I can't believe this."

"Why don't you use one of your newly acquired powers to locate him?" asked Lance.

Rogue paused and decided that that would be a good idea.  So, she used Jean's powers to find him, Kurt's powers to teleport to him and St. John's powers just for fun.  After all, when she absorbs the powers, she also absorbs some memories and feelings so she obviously would get St. John's desires to use his powers just because he can.

"I found you!" Rogue declared.

"Aw man!" said the Blue Jamie, snapping his fingers.  Rogue then grabbed onto him, teleported to back to her team and then teleported back to where the REAL Jamie was.

"We found him." said Wanda.

"Did you work as a TEAM to find him?" asked Jamie as his Blue Multiple self merged with him.

"Um…yeah!" said Lance.

"I don't believe you!" said Jamie, just to be annoying.  "I just can't see Lance's abilities to shake the world coming in handy to find me!"

"Well, they did!" said Lance.  "Very much so!"

Jamie then smacked himself in the face and the blue one came out again and ran off.  "You have to find him again!"

"WHAT?!" demanded the Blue Team.

Suddenly, the Jean Team woke up all at the same time.  They were somewhat annoyed about what had just happened ESPECIALLY after they had shook hands beforehand so as they left, they stuck their tongues out at the Blue Team that had to wait twenty minutes before starting up again.

"There he is!" said St. John almost immediately pointing to a Jamie dressed in all red.

"We're GREEN." Said Kurt.  It was at that time that Kitty and Todd ran by, chasing after the Red Jamie who had broke into a run.

Remy then casually strolled by, holding the arm of the Green Jamie.

"Is this for us?!" Jean said, slapping her cheeks.

"St. John…do you want to just go now?" Remy asked.  "I mean…does it really matter if we're thrown out of the Acolytes?"

St. John went into deep thought.  "Well…okay!"

"What?!" demanded Kurt and Jean.

"Au revoir chéri et mon ami." Said Remy, saluting Kurt and Jean.

"I heard that!!" yelled Kitty as she ran over.

"Come on." Said Remy, trying to hurry St. John along as he left the Green Jamie behind.  "A present for you two!"  And with that, St. John and Gambit disappeared down the busy streets of Laredo…or…well…England I guess it would be...

Until they caught sight of the red-clad Jamie again.

"There he is again!" St. John yelled excitedly because he still hadn't gotten out of the mood yet.

"So?" asked Remy.  "Aren't we dropping out?"

"I think it would be better if you and me ended up winning the whole race!"

"You mean, instead of the colored teams, we win as the Acolyte team?" asked Remy as he rubbed his chin in deep thought.

"Exactly!" said St. John as he lit his lighter and formed a wall around Red Jamie.  "I've got him, just in case."

"All right, let's do that." Said Remy as he grabbed Red Jamie's arm and the three of them walked back to where the ORIGINAL Jamie was waiting with a timer while the Blue Team tapped their feet impatiently.

"We found our Jamie!" St. John announced upon entering.

"Wait…that's not right…" said Lance pointing to the makeshift red team.

"Congratulations!" Jamie cheered.  Then he turned to Red Jamie who was standing there looking all ashamed of himself for having been caught.  "Did they use teamwork to capture you?"

Red Jamie nodded.

"Very good!" said Jamie as he handed Remy a pair of plane tickets and the two Acolytes ran off before the Blue Team could say anything else. 

Suddenly, Kurt and Jean ran back in with the Green Jamie.

"We got him!" Jean announced.  "But one of our teammates is missing!"

"Then I'm afraid I can't let you go any further without your teammate." Said Jamie.

"But you just gave plane tickets to those two!" said Lance as if that really bothered him.

"They didn't say they had a teammate missing." Said Jamie.  "So I assumed they were all there."

"Um…" thought Kurt as he looked around before spotting the Blue Team still impatiently waiting for twenty minutes to finish.  "Rogue's on our team!"

"I am?" she asked but then she realized that pretending to be on that team could benefit her.  "I mean…I AM!!"

"All righty!" said Jamie as he handed Jean, Rogue and Kurt their plane tickets.  The three of them were just about to run out the door when Kitty and Todd ran in, wondering about their missing teammate.

"Where'd Remy go?" Kitty demanded.  "Why'd he leave me with TODD?!"

"Hey, don't think I want to be on just YOUR team anyway." Said Todd.

"Are we making the teams over or something?" asked Kitty as she looked around.  "Because if you are, I'd love to join another team!"

"You can join our team, Pretty Kitty!" said Lance.  "We only have two members!"

Kitty looked at the team of Lance and Wanda.  "Um…"

"I GUESS you can join ours." Kurt suggested.  "We already have our tickets!"

"Like…I think I'll join this team." Said Kitty as she walked over to Jean, Kurt and Rogue.  Jamie handed her another ticket and the four of them ran away as fast as they could.

"I am getting SO sick of this!" Wanda said in an annoyed tone as she zapped Jamie with her magical powers and stole the tickets from him.  "Let's get out of here!"

"You said it!" said Todd and Lance as they started running for about a minute before bumping into the only team that was still together; the Pink Team.

"Where IS that Pink Jamie?" wondered Scott aloud.

"This is pointless!" said Evan.

"YOU'RE pointless, Daniels." Said Pietro.  "Or should I say, you have MANY points but all in the wrong places." Then he laughed as if that joke made any sense to anyone but him.

"Pietro, I don't know where your loyalties lie but are you with the X-Men or the Brotherhood?" asked Lance out of nowhere as he approached the baffled Pink Team.

"What?" asked Pietro.  "Since when is that even a question?!"

"Well, you're walking around being all buddy/buddy with Summers and Daniels." Said Todd as he pointed to Scott and Evan.

"We're on a TEAM." Said Pietro.

"Well the teams are off!" said Wanda threateningly.  "You're either with US or with THEM and believe me, you DON'T want to chose THEM!!"

"I'm lost." Said Scott.

"Just smile and nod." Whispered Evan with a fake smile on his face as he continuously nodded.

"Well then!" said Pietro.  "I guess this is where we say goodbye!  Summers… Daniels… it's been, well… it's been bad." 

And with that, Pietro walked over with the Brotherhood as the four of them walked away laughing while leaving Evan and Scott there to just smile and nod.

"So where do we go now, team?" asked Pietro.

"Get this, dear BROTHER…" Wanda said.  "We don't REALLY want you on our team.  We're only utilizing you and your speed, all right?"

"Whatever." Said Pietro.  "I've pretty much been utilized this whole race ANYWAY.  So how do plan on utilizing me?"

"Well…" said Wanda as she held up a little red wagon.

MEANWHILE!!

"This can't be right…" said Kurt as the assorted group of four; Kurt, Jean, Rogue and Kitty, teleported in front of some random Italian store.  Coincidentally, it was the SAME random Italian store that Evan and Scott were eating Italian sausages at.

"What are you guys doing here?" asked Rogue.

"Well, we figured that there would be no better opportunity to get REALLY good authentic Italian sausages than in ITALY so we…" started Scott.

"We can still win!" Jean announced, getting determined.  "Not as our random assorted colored teams that divided a once strong team, but as that team that we once were!  The everlasting bond that can't be broken!  The X-Men!  Come on!  Let's make Professor Xavier proud and defeat the Brotherhood and the Acolytes!"

Everyone paused to make sure Jean's speech was done.

"How about we just go home?" suggested Kitty.

Jean gasped.  "Oh no!" she exclaimed.  "I bet the other the Acolytes and the Brotherhood are trying to defeat us in this race as we speak!!  Come, we must hurry back to the institute!!"

"We don't have tickets." Said Evan.

"That's all right." Said Kurt.  "We really didn't plan on riding on the plane anyway."

Then Jean used her magic powers to make everyone FLY off into the night!


	13. The Homestretch!

MEANWHILE!!!

"Ah…" said Gambit as he relaxed in his seat in the airplane.  He, thankfully, didn't have any ADD kids or little girls demanding him to speak French this time.  Instead, he had the mentally insane St. John to his left.

"Lighter go on, lighter go off, lighter go on, lighter go off…" St. John said to himself as he did just that.

"I'll only say this once." Said Remy.  "If that flame gets any bigger than it does naturally then I'm going to become very angry."

"We don't want Remy angry!" said St. John as he continued turning his lighter on and off.

"I'm serious." Said Remy.  "I will touch that lighter and it will blow up."

"All right." St. John said in that tone that you KNEW he would go and disobey orders a second later.

Remy decided not to let it bother him and just to enjoy the movie that was playing.

MEANWHILE!!!

"FASTER Pietro!!" yelled Wanda.  "I've seen you go faster than this!!"

"Yeah…" panted Pietro.  "But when you saw me, I wasn't carting three slow mos…I mean…three PEOPLE in a stupid little red wagon!"

"He's pulled the whole Brotherhood around in a wagon." Said Todd, just to create problems.  

"Including FRED so if he can't pull YOU instead of Fred then he's either lying or calling you fat." Lance added.

"WHAT?!" Wanda yelled as she stood up on the wagon to get all medieval on Pietro but unfortunately for her, his speed was too much so she fell backward and landed on the ground.  

Pietro screeched to a halt and walked over to see what happened.  Wanda was lying face down on the ground, apparently not moving.

Suddenly, the ground split open and pipes flew all over the place and telephone poles started dancing.  Wanda lifted her head out of the ground, stood up and grabbed Pietro by his collar.

"NO ONE calls me fat!" Wanda yelled.

"Uh…uh…" stuttered Pietro.  "On the contrary!  You're looking rather thin today!  Has all this exercising caused you to lose weight?" 

Wanda let go of Pietro and stumbled backward while clutching her head.  "Ugh…" she said as if she were in pain as Pietro sighed with relief.  Then he took that opportunity to go over and beat Lance up and beat him up DEAD!!  Of course, not really since we can't have Lance dying on us.  Instead, Pietro decided to throw the little red wagon into the ocean.  Of course, this clued everyone into the fact that they were now by the ocean.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Yeah, usually, while Jean was flying us around, Pietro, Remy and I didn't really have much to do so we usually played cards with Remy's deck and I was just holding onto them and I guess he never took them back…" said Rogue, pulling a deck of cards out from behind her back.

"So these are FRENCH cards?" Kitty asked as she looked at the little box as Rogue made her attempts at shuffling.  It wasn't too hard for her since she had zapped Remy a few times so now had a few of his skills like shuffling cards.

"We should all be encouraging Jean, not playing cards!" said Scott.

"Finally!" said Kitty.  "Scott and Jean are on the same team!"

"Let's play Crazy Eights!" said Kurt.  "I'm really good at that game!"

"I'd prefer to play Poker." Said Rogue.  "Since, at the moment, I'm really good at it."

"How about Strip Poker?" suggested Evan with smirk.

"Ew!" said Kitty.  "You are like…so gross!"

"So that's a no?" asked Evan.

"I never said that!" said Kitty.  "I was going to say that all the hot guys are on other teams but then I decided against it at the last second."

"So you'd like to see the Fuzzy One naked?" asked Kurt as he slicked back his hair.

"Um…no offense Kurt, but fur isn't one of my turn ons." Said Kitty.  Kurt turned to Scott.

"She digs the Fuzzy One!" he said.

"Guys!" Scott said.  "Jean is TRYING to concentrate!  Try not to distract her!"

"I don't think I can hold you guys!!" said Jean as she randomly started having another one of her tough times using her powers that she has on occasion.  Then all of a sudden, the entire X-Men team plunged into the ocean that was below them.  If you didn't know that the ocean had to be below them in order for them to plunge, then you are a knave.

"Aw man!" whined Kitty.  "Now we're in the ocean!"

"No problem!" said Kurt as he pointed at a boat that just so happened to be going by them.  "Check it!"  They all swam over to Kurt and grabbed onto him and he teleported onto the boat.

"Hey!!" came the angry voice of Lance as he stomped over.  "What do you guys think you're doing on OUR boat?!"

"YOUR boat?!" Kitty said as if she was offended.  "I don't see your name on it!  You're such a hood, Lance!"

"I'll never be good enough for you!!" yelled Lance as he stomped his foot and the whole boat shook around crazily and surely would have broken apart and caused all of their untimely ends if Rogue hadn't walked casually up to him and touched him as he stood there and did nothing about it.

MEANWHILE!!

"Oh yeah?" St. John teased as he held his lit light up as a circle of flames engulfed it and his entire hand.  "You'd LIKE to touch it, now wouldn't you!  You LOVE to just touch my lighter and make it explode!  That would just make your day, I bet!"

"I suggest you extinguish that before too many people see you." Remy said as if he REALLY cared if people saw St. John's crazy magic tricks.

"And what are THEY going to do about it?!" St. John said.  "We're above the ocean so they can't land the plane again!"

"Again?" asked Remy with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes." Said St. John.  "AGAIN."

"Do I even want to know?" Remy questioned.

"Maybe." Said St. John.  "I wouldn't know.  I'm not YOU."

Remy decided to ignore St. John and maybe he'd just go away.

But St. John DIDN'T go away!!

"THE WING'S ON FIRE!!!" he screamed suddenly.  Everyone in the entire plane jumped up and ran over to the window that St. John was pointing at.  "Ha ha!  Just kidding!  Now matter how much I wish it WAS, it's not!"

All the passengers eyed St. John suspiciously and made their way back to their seats.

"Don't do that again." Remy warned.

"Hehe." Said St. John, looking out the window, looking as though he was about to do it again.

Remy then spotted the lighter that St. John was holding loosely in the hand closest to Remy.  So he reached out and snatched it from him.  St. John spun around just as Remy had the chance to make the lighter explosive.

"If this leaves my hand, it will explode." Remy said threateningly.

"Don't make it explode!" St. John practically whined.

"I will hold onto this for the rest of the ride." Remy said.  "You behave for the rest of the ride.  If I decide that you have behaved well enough, I will return it to you as good as new."

"You wouldn't!!" St. John whined.  Then he paused and realized that that wasn't the appropriate thing to say.  "I mean…THE WING'S ON FIRE!!!"

The entire plane turned to St. John and gave him an angry glare while whispering comments about how a grown man should behave.

"So far, not so good." Said Remy.

"No…it seriously IS on fire!" St. John said as he pointed out the window to the wing that was ablaze.

"Oh merde." Said Remy.  "We're gonna die."

MEANWHILE!!!

"ROW FASTER PIETRO!!" Wanda commanded as Pietro put his entire body into the rowing process.

"Why couldn't we have just stayed on that boat?" Pietro whined.

"I didn't wish to travel with the X-Men." Said Wanda wistfully.

"Me neither." Said Lance as if it were all about him.

"I would have liked to stay on the boat." Said Todd.  "And that's two against two.  Why did we leave?"

"Because MY vote counts as TWO!!" Wanda said as she got all in Todd's face.  That was a mistake on her part because Todd just kissed her.

"I love you too." He said.  But that was a mistake on HIS part because she just zapped him and heaved him into the ocean.  "AHHHHH!!!!" he yelled.

"Someone should help me row!" whined Pietro.  (He certainly is whining a lot, isn't he?)

"No way, Pietro." Said Lance.  "You row WAY too fast for us to be able to keep up." Todd took a few gasps of air as he climbed back into the boat but stayed a little hesitant and decided that maybe he wouldn't kiss Wanda against her will anytime soon.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Well, at least the Brotherhood is gone." Said Scott.  "Nice job, team!"

Then the X-Men all put their hands in the middle and jumped up and the screen froze while they were up in the air with their hands pointed towards the heaven and their laughter continued in the background.

After a few seconds of that, the screen unfroze and they all landed on their arses because they had been suspended in air for longer than they had thought and were are thrown off.  So, now that they were all better and oriented again, they decided to see if Jean had gathered up enough strength to make them fly again.

AND SHE HAD!!  HURRAY!!

Instead of playing cards, or TALKING about playing cards, the X-Men decided to encourage Jean this time so she wouldn't drop them.

"Go Jean go!!" they all cheered.

MEANWHILE!!

"Wow Remy!" St. John laughed.  "You were so silly praying and crying and begging for your mommy!"

"I'm going to kill you." Said Remy as he tried to refrain from killing his partner.

"Why?!" St. John demanded.  "I saved everyone's lives!"

"But you were the one who started the fire, were you not?"

"You have no proof of that." St. John said.  "You had my lighter the whole time!  Which, might I add, you still have."

"And it shall remain that way." Said Remy as he put the lighter in his pocket.  "This is mine now."

"Is this anyway to treat your hero?!"

"I still don't understand what you did." Said Remy. 

"I SAVED you!!" St. John yelled.

"Only after first putting my life in danger." Remy said, crossing his arms.

"You weren't in any danger!" St. John assured him.  "I would never put MYSELF in danger!!"

"This is your captain speaking." Came the captain's voice over the intercom.  "We are coming up to the airport that is conveniently located in Bayville.  Please continue flying with us and we also ask you to disregard everything happened on this flight except for the kind, good service you received.  Thank you and have a nice day."

Then the plane landed and there wasn't any line or wait to get off the plane so St. John and Remy had absolutely no trouble ESPECIALLY since they didn't have any baggage to carry!

MEANWHILE!!!

"Finally!!" said Wanda, getting out of the boat and jamming a flag with a big 'W' on it into the ground.  "I hereby claim this land Wanda Territory!"

"I claim it Wanda AND Todd Territory!!" Todd said, jamming a flag into the ground that had 'T (insert heart here) W'.

"I don't think so." Said Wanda as she zapped the flag AND Todd.

Pietro could hardly find the strength to get himself out of the boat.  After all, he just rowed from England to the states.  Lance got out of the boat like a normal person.  There was nothing special about how he got out.  Actually, he got out and just gave the world a good shake and then the team decided to go off to the institute since they had, after all, landed in Bayville!! 

MEANWHILE!!

The X-Men touched ground in Bayville just as Jean's powers gave out.

"I can't go on any further…" she panted.  "My strength…is gone."

"Then we'll go on foot the rest of the way." Said Scott as he hoisted Jean up on his shoulder.  "I'll help you walk, Jean."

"Thank you, Scott…" said Jean.

"I could just teleport us to the finish line." Suggested Kurt.

"No…" said Jean.  "We will go the…rest of the way…without powers…"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Evan whined.  "We race around the world and in the final leg of the race, you're saying that we have to do it without powers?!"

"Yes." Said Jean.

"What Jean says, goes!" said Scott.  "After all, she carried us across the Atlantic Ocean!"

"Like…I'm going to need a shower after this." Said Kitty.

"Yeah…you really will." Said Rogue.


	14. And the Winners Are

MEANWHILE!!

"So whom do you think will win?" asked Professor Xavier as he, Magneto and Mystique sat at the finish line with their various flags and #1 foam hands.

"Obviously my Acolytes!" said Magneto pompously.

"No, I meant out of the teams we assigned." Said Professor Xavier.

"Well, I'm saying that there's NO way the teams held up until the end." Magneto answered.

"You must have FAITH Magnus." Said Professor Xavier.  "I believe that the teams held true to the end."

"We shall see soon enough." Said Mystique.

Just then, Bobby, Forge, Beast, Storm, Angel, Logan, Sam and Jamie came trotting up.  They all were rooting for different teams but they weren't about to create controversy.  The rest of the New Recruits came out as well to see the teams cross the finish line and pretty soon, Victor, Piotr and Fred came out of their secluded bubbles in the corner to watch as well.

The cheer started out low…

Then it started to grow!

Everyone was cheering for who they thought deserved to win!!

Suddenly, from over the hill, St. John dressed in green and Remy dressed in red appeared.

"Go Acolytes!!" cheered Magneto.

"Is that the finish line?" St. John said, peering at the yellow stripe of tape that stretched across two trees.

"It must be." Said Remy.  "Come on, let's end this!"

"FASTER EVERYONE!!!" came a voice from behind them.  Remy and St. John turned around to see the Brotherhood coming towards the yellow tape.  "JUST A LITTLE BIT FURTHER!!!"

"No!" yelled Scott as he hobbled around the corner with Jean slung over his shoulder.  "We must win!!"

"Hurry up, Pietro!" Wanda called.  "I never thought I'd say this, but you're slowing us down!"

"I'm…too tired to run or…walk…" said Pietro as he collapsed.

"Idiots!" Wanda yelled as she pointed to Todd and Lance.  "Carry my stupid brother!"

"Can't we just cross without him?" asked Todd.

"You must cross with EVERYONE!" came Professor Xavier's voice over a megaphone.  Mystique grabbed the megaphone out of his hand.

"Pietro, you dishonor me!!" she yelled.  "Get your rear in gear!"

"Both teams have an injured member." Observed Remy as he and St. John jogged closer and closer to the finish line.  Then he took St. John's lighter out of his pocket.  "Better increase those numbers." 

"You're going to give me my lighter and allow me to create an impenetrable wall of fire?" St. John asked.

"No." said Remy as the lighter began to glow with strange sparks and Remy threw it among the hobbling Brotherhood and X-Men only to have it create a mighty explosion.

"HOW COULD YOU?!" St. John cried.

"HEY!!" Professor Xavier and Mystique yelled over the megaphones.

Sadly, both the X-Men Team AND The Brotherhood Team are now all dead.  Alas.

JUST KIDDING!!  HAW HAW HAW!!  Remy missed.  He has BAD AIM!  He just created a giant crater.

"Come on…" said Remy but St. John was now in the fetal position on the ground crying over his dearly departed lighter.  "What are you doing?"

"My LIGHTER!!!" wailed St. John.  "YOU BLEW IT UP!!"

"I refuse to lose this way!" said Remy as he grabbed onto St. John and attempted to pull him but St. John was kicking and screaming and grabbing onto anything that he just so happened to be dragged past.

While this was happening, Remy watched as the X-Men ran by one by one were teleported across the gorge and then hobbled across the finish line.

"WE WIN!!" cheered the X-Men Team.

"I knew all along." Said Professor Xavier, wiping a tear from his eye.

Okay…that MIGHT have happened…but here's what COULD have happened:

"Both teams have an injured member." Observed Remy as he and St. John jogged closer and closer to the finish line.  Then he took St. John's lighter out of his pocket.  "Better increase those numbers." 

"You're going to give me my lighter and allow me to create an impenetrable wall of fire?" St. John asked.

"No." said Remy as the lighter began to glow with strange sparks and Remy threw it among the hobbling Brotherhood and X-Men but Wanda appeared to be paying attention and threw her hands out just in time to turn the lighter around so it went DIRECTLY for the X-Men and it blew a big gorge in front of them.  Then she zapped both Remy and St. John.

"Come on!" she said.  "Now's our chance to win this!"

The three jogged (with Pietro being carried by Todd and Lance) up to the finish line and broke the tape triumphantly.

"I knew you would win." Said Mystique, crossing her arms.

"You doubted us?" said Lance.

"Never." said Mystique, wiping a tear from her eye.

That's a possibility…but how about this?

"Both teams have an injured member." Observed Remy as he and St. John jogged closer and closer to the finish line.  Then he took St. John's lighter out of his pocket.  "Better increase those numbers." 

"You're going to give me my lighter and allow me to create an impenetrable wall of fire?" St. John asked.

"Yes." Said Remy as he handed the lighter to St. John and he did just that!!

Then Remy and St. John strolled leisurely across the finish line.

"I'm glad you didn't embarrass me." Said Magneto.

"What, by losing?" asked Remy.

"No, by staying on the same team as the X-Men!" said Magneto as he wiped a tear from his eye. 

But here's what REALLY happened.

"Both teams have an injured member." Observed Remy as he and St. John jogged closer and closer to the finish line.  Then he took St. John's lighter out of his pocket.  "Better increase those numbers." 

"You're going to give me my lighter and allow me to create an impenetrable wall of fire?" St. John asked.

"WAIT!!" Jean yelled over all the commotion.  Everyone immediately stopped and looked at Jean who was in an utterly pathetic state as tears streamed from her eyes.  "Isn't this whole race about teamwork?  We should all cross the finish line TOGETHER!!"

Even though this would NEVER happen in real life, everyone agreed with Jean, linked arms and frolicked across the finish line.  They all wiped tears from their eyes at a job well done and chuckled warmly as a black circle engulfed them all.


End file.
